Now is the “We-Time.” Heidegger’s ‘Black Notebooks’ read as self-critical reflection of Nazi involvement

Abstract

The article analyzes Heidegger’s relation to National Socialism based on his private writing in the “Black Notebooks,” published in their entirety (nine volumes) this year. Although it is indisputable that Heidegger was an enthusiastic adherent of the National Socialist program between 1930 and 1934, his private writings show his avowed philosophical delusion that the National Socialist ‘revolution’ in Germany was going to bring about a new beginning of philosophy beyond the metaphysical tradition. The article shows how Heidegger criticized National Socialism after 1934, and the circumstances of his resignation from the post of Rector of Freiburg University in that year.

Keywords

• heidegger
• national socialism
• brutality
• technics
• machination
• metapolitics
• we-time