>And yet, Heidegger still stands as one of the commanding figures of 20th-century philosophy. His heirs include Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir and Jacques Derrida. His denial of mind-body dualism – his belief that we are rooted beings, inextricable from time and place – continues to influence fields as diverse as architecture, ecology and art history. Readers are left to discern whether the essence of his ideas leads inexorably to fascistic thinking or whether, in that aged refrain, the life can be separated from the work, so that we are free to forage as we please.
There's a third option, that didn't seem to pass through the writer's mind: that what they call "fascistic thinking" is a constellation of things, many of which were invoked in the past without negative consequences, and most would still find totally find, were they not today tarnished by association with a mass murdering regime...
The fascists also pushed major welfare reforms for example, and nobody today (hopefully) considers welfare something fascist in the bad sense...
The same can be said for all kinds of philosophical ideas (including of Heidegger). Just because they were themselves adopted by Nazis doesn't mean adopting them brings upon a Nazi regime, antisemitism, or mass murder...
There's a third option, that didn't seem to pass through the writer's mind: that what they call "fascistic thinking" is a constellation of things, many of which were invoked in the past without negative consequences, and most would still find totally find, were they not today tarnished by association with a mass murdering regime...
The fascists also pushed major welfare reforms for example, and nobody today (hopefully) considers welfare something fascist in the bad sense...
The same can be said for all kinds of philosophical ideas (including of Heidegger). Just because they were themselves adopted by Nazis doesn't mean adopting them brings upon a Nazi regime, antisemitism, or mass murder...