Heidegger The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy Emmanuel Faye, Michael B. Smith, Tom Rockmore

In the most comprehensive examination to date of Heidegger's Nazism, Emmanuel Faye draws on previously unavailable materials to paint a damning picture of Nazism's influence on the philosopher's thought and politics. In this provocative book, Faye uses excerpts from unpublished seminars to show that Heidegger's philosophical writings are fatally compromised by an adherence to National Socialist ideas. In other documents, Faye finds expressions of racism and exterminatory anti-Semitism. Faye disputes the view of Heidegger as a naive, temporarily disoriented academician and instead shows him to have been a self-appointed 'spiritual guide' for Nazism whose intentionality was clear. Contrary to what some have written, Heidegger's Nazism became even more radical after 1935, as Faye demonstrates. He revisits Heidegger's masterwork, "Being and Time", and concludes that in it Heidegger does not present a philosophy of individual existence but rather a doctrine of radical self-sacrifice, where individualization is allowed only for the purpose of heroism in warfare. Faye's book was highly controversial when originally published in France in 2005. Now available in Michael B. Smith's fluid English translation, it is bound to awaken controversy in the English-speaking world.

Emmanuel Faye is associate professor at the University Paris Ouest - Nanterre La Defense and an authority on Descartes. Michael B. Smith is professor emeritus of French and philosophy at Berry College and the translator of numerous philosophical works into English.

"Faye's reading of Heidegger's philosophy is quite simply transformative. Through a meticulous perusal of new sources--letters, heretofore unpublished seminars and lecture courses--he demonstrates that, during the 1920s and 1930s, right-wing ideological concerns were absolutely central to Heidegger's "Existenzphilosophie". Upon completing Faye's study, it will be impossible to read Heidegger again naively, i.e., in a narrowly text-immanent manner." -- Richard Wolin, author of "Heidegger's Children" and Distinguished Professor of History and Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center

--Richard Wolin