[Xmca-l] Re: Heidegger's Notebooks Renew Focus on Anti-Semitism - NYTimes.com

[David Preiss]

That's an interesting question. The protocols of the elders of Zion, the antisemitic libel, was first published in Russia and then extensively used by Hitler. Umberto Eco writes a fantastic fictional account of the origin of the Protocols in his last novel, The Prague Cemetery. If anything, the novel shows that XXth century antisemitism crystallises many cultural threads and that many influences were reciprocal. Afterwards, during the Soviet era, antisemitism should be understood as a part of the mechanics of Stalinism. Specially iconic are the events associated to the so-called doctor's plot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot) and the so-called night of the murdered poets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Murdered_Poets)

On Mar 31, 2014, at 2:17 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> What a tortured and tangled history with both Kant and Hegel in it.
> In my personal experience, anti-semitism in Russia was more intense than
> any I had previously encountered in the U.S. Does the influence of German
> philosophy and psychology on Russian thought which has often been discussed
> on xlchc/xmca link up with anti-semitism in the two countries in the same
> way?
> 
> For those who were mystified by my reference to *Jew Suss* the wikipedia
> entry provides relevant background. The story begins with a novel by an
> anti-fascist writer which is then inverted in a fascist film. I liked the
> novel at the time I read it many decades ago.
> 
> mike
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 9:52 AM, rjsp2 <r.j.s.parsons@open.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
>> Joris's translation is available at http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=317
>> 
>> and there is more at the Wikipedia page on Celan:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Celan  which I just edited to provide
>> the right link to Joris's blog. (This is work avoidance, you will realise.)
>> 
>> Rob
>> 
>> 
>> On 31/03/2014 16:34, David Preiss wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Mike,
>>> I yet don't know whether addressing the issue from the point of view of
>>> Heidegger's writings is relevant. I am aware that for many people in the
>>> philosophy departments what is attractive as a scholarly activity is to
>>> elucidate whether his philosophy has substantive connections with a Nazi
>>> worldview. I can understand why is interesting to them. And, yet, I doubt
>>> that the masses adhering to nazism got it from reading Heidegger or other
>>> philosophers as the nazism of the german populace was quite basic and quite
>>> naturalized.
>>> 
>>> What I think is the real problem is how to judge the actions of
>>> intellectuals during times where the worst side of humanity takes center
>>> stage. Thus, I think that Heidegger has to be judged according to what he
>>> did, what he publicly said as regards the Holocaust (before, during and
>>> after). And we don't need to read the black notebooks to learn that his
>>> moral stature is not compatible with the sensitivity he shows in some of
>>> his writings.
>>> 
>>> Alas, poor Celan, whom expected something different from him until the
>>> end:
>>> http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/joris/todtnauberg.html
>>> 
>>> David
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Mar 31, 2014, at 2:18 AM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Among the many things to read, that was an interesting summary of the
>>>> black
>>>> notebooks, David.
>>>> 
>>>> Am i correct in interpreting the link between heidegger and anti-semitism
>>>> t, according to this account, to run through the sin of rationalism and
>>>> its
>>>> epitome in mathematics as "calculation" presumably linking rationalism
>>>> and
>>>> money lending, and hence the historical steretotype as in *Jew Suss*?
>>>> Or is that too simple?
>>>> 
>>>> Is the anti-semitism endemic to the philosophy or contingent invasion of
>>>> a
>>>> historical German cultural narrative?
>>>> 
>>>> (signed)
>>>> The blind man with a stick
>>>> mike
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 7:47 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Martin:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I've only seen short extracts from the "Black Notebooks", but what
>>>>> I've seen suggests that the real problem is not time but precisely the
>>>>> problem of "worlding" which was mentioned earlier.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Jews, according to the "Black Notebooks", are an "unworlded" people,
>>>>> and because of that they are necessarily parasitic upon peoples who
>>>>> are deeply and profoundly in the world, i.e. his truly.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/books/heideggers-
>>>>> notebooks-renew-focus-on-anti-semitism.html?_r=0
>>>>> 
>>>>> It's a big world, and there are lots of other things to read. They are
>>>>> only short extracts, but they are more than enough.
>>>>> 
>>>>> David Kellogg
>>>>> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 31 March 2014 10:02, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi David,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Yes, this always the problem with Heidegger: his appalling politics,
>>>>>> 
>>>>> both professional and personal.  However, the conceptual problem he was
>>>>> working on was also important to philosophers with very different
>>>>> politics.
>>>>> For example, Lucien Goldmann found parallels between Heidegger and
>>>>> Lukacs
>>>>> (ref below). I find it helpful to (try to) understand what Heidegger was
>>>>> trying to do, and also understand how a philosopher of human existence
>>>>> was
>>>>> unable to prevent himself from becoming a very unpleasant human being.
>>>>> (The
>>>>> problem lies in his treatment of time, in my view.)
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Martin
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Goldmann, L. (1979). Lukacs and Heidegger: Towards a new philosophy.
>>>>>> 
>>>>> Routledge and Kegan Paul.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Mar 30, 2014, at 7:10 PM, David Preiss <daviddpreiss@gmail.com>
>>>>>> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> As an aside to the ongoing references to Heidegger... May be of
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> interest or not.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> DP
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/books/heideggers-notebooks-
>>>>> renew-focus-on-anti-semitism.html?referrer=
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Descarga la aplicación oficial de Twitter aquí
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Enviado desde mi iPhone
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>> 
>> -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an
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>> 038302).
>> 
>>