Some Heideggerian apologists claim that: "Politics (particularly Heidegger's politics) has nothing to do with philosophy."

As I see it the transcendentalist *side* of Heidegger can be so attractive to a certain type of philosophically stunted mindset, that there is a natural tendency on their behalf, not exactly to ignore his Nazi *side,* but to attempt to separate out and *distance* the two *sides,* and claim that a philosopher's opinions and preferences, [political, sexual, musical, cultural, etc.,] are private realms and tastes, which [if we accept these curious claims) are to be considered as quite different from his strictly philosophical activities, and therefore are sercenate and should be marked off and treated accordingly.

Let's face it. Since all the horrific disclosures regarding Heidegger, particularly the recent revelation by Prof. Faye a senior lecturer at Paris University [CLICK HERE] that Heidegger called for the extermination or elimination of the Jews) what other avenue of escape have the apologists got? To accept Heidegger lock, stock, and political pork-barrel would be to accept his Nazism and be kicked out of every university in the world. The doctrine of *pigeon-hole philosophy,* where a philosopher's politics and other preferences and sexual predilections are *pigeon-holed* separately from his philosophical observations was inevitable as the last redoubt [the last fallback position] of the apologists, for strategically they would be mortally compromised by adopting any other defensive position.

This strategy raises two problems.

(A) It generates the need to claim the same thing about all philosophers, including political-philosophers, [not to mention Plato and his Republic,] when plainly any quick check of the known political positions of historical philosophers will demonstrate that this is not so, and that with the exception of those historical philosophers of whom nothing is known of their political allegiances, a case can be made for exactly the opposite. Thinkers who are usually associated in the public mind with philosophies of responsibility, respect for authority, loyalty to the leadership and the state, acceptance of one's fate, faith in the almighty etc., are usually to be found on the right supporting the status quo, whilst those philosophers who emphasise the spirit of the individual, the questioning of given moralities, the opposition to accepted historical metaphysical generalities, the imperfections of certain economic and class structures and hierarchies, etc., are usually to be found on the left giving support to opposition movements or at least tendencies which can be described as *progressive* rather than reactionary, in what can laughingly described as their the *private* or *non-philosophical* lives.

(B) There is a strange and naive belief amongst some Heideggerians that there is only one sort of philosophy, This involves a curious faith or belief that *philosophy* is actually just another name for Heideggerianism, and all other thinking about human beings in relation to the way we live in this world, and how that world came about, and why and how we see that world in certain ways, and why different people see that world differently, is not philosophy at all, because it does not follow the prescriptions handed down to us by the prophet Heidegger when he descended Zarathrustra-like from Mount Todtnauberg with his tablets, and because most other thinkers don't employ the peculiar terminology for which Heidegger is notable.

     The fact that Heidegger never critiqued or apologised for his activities and allegiances even unto death, suggests that his political preferences remained unchanged, for he did not extend his unwillingness for any criticism or apologetics to other areas considered by many to be *outside* philosophy, such as technology and its effects on the environment [all of which developments are controlled by politicians] and the people and animals and plants living in such an environment.

     If we are to claim that to include politics, which is the study of and/or the participation in the social relations involving authority or power, is a betrayal of philosophy, then we must ask which particular branch of philosophy this applies to and why, and if the philosophies which do include the study of politics are to be considered as philosophy at all? Again is politics the only domain of human thinking that should be set apart from philosophy, or are there other domains of human activity and cognitive investigation that qualify for the Heideggerian chop? Is religion with its huge economic organisation and worldly capitalistic properties, investments and interests, its hierarchies, its different political allegiances and the inter-religious disputes which bleed into the political and militaristic also to be excluded from philosophy?

     What of poetry, which can be highly political and chauvinistic [Hoelderlin] and mystical and racialist? Should poetry be excluded from philosophy because it can inspire revolution, racialism, and the acceptance or rejection of certain political positions or indeed an outright rejection of politics and philosophy completely. Or should only CERTAIN TYPES of poetry, and CERTAIN TYPES of religion or CERTAIN TYPES of politics be acceptable for inclusion in this mysterious, refined, science-free and rendered-down metaphysicalist version of *philosophy* that Henk has in mind?

     Yes, Heidegger certainly believed that philosophy was not to be separated out from the workaday world of politics, labour and the embodiment of all in the fabric of the state: Here are some clips from his notorious [but never before mentioned here] Follow the Fuhrer! (1934)

For *those who do the brainwork* means Heidegger himself and the [thanks to him] now Juden-frei] members of his Philosophy Department.

On October 30, 1933, the Mayor's employment program found work for 600 unemployed. The auxiliary services of child care and clothing sensibly bettered the conditions of the workers, so that now their National Socialist education can begin. On the twenty-second of this month (February, 1934) the 600 marched to the largest lecture hall of the university and were greeted by the Rector in the following address:

"German compatriots! German workers!

As Rector of the university I greet you most heartily in this house. This greeting marks the beginning of our work together. We will begin by making clear the meaning of the till now unheard-of event, that you, relief workers of the town of Freiburg, have met us in the largest lecture hall of the university. What does this event mean? Through widespread and entirely new methods of work procurement, the town of Freiburg has led you to employment and food. And because of that you are favoured over the other unemployed men of the town. But this privilege has its duties, too. And your duty is to take the employment, and perform the tasks, in whatever manner the Fuhrer of our new State demands.

... you must know what is happening to the people in this National Socialist State; you must know what a hard struggle it will be to bring this new reality to fruition; you must know what the coming healing of the body of the German people means, and what it demands from each individual; you must know to what a pretty pass German men have come because of urbanisation, and how they will be given back to the soil and the land through settlements, you must know the implications of the fact that eighteen million Germans belong to the German people, but not to the German State because they live beyond the state frontiers. "

Jud:
Settlements? Settlements? Where are the *settlements to be? Why in the confiscated eastern lands of course. Is this philosophy? Heidegger:

Heidegger:
"Every working man of our people must know for what reason and to what end he stands there. Through this living, and always current, knowledge will his life first be rooted in the whole German people and in its destiny. And with the procurement of employment goes the procurement of this knowledge, and it is your right, and indeed your duty, to demand this knowledge and to make every effort to come by it."

Jud:

German people and it's *destiny? What has this got to do with the modern Heideggerianistas sanitised version of *philosophy.*
Heidegger:

"And now your young comrades of the university stand ready to help you get the knowledge."

snip

"They will listen to your questions, your needs, your difficulties and your doubts, talk these through with you, and by your common work bring you to clarity, freedom and decision. "

Jud:

Here Heidegger refers to his young PHILOSOPHY students, who will *bring you to clarity, freedom and decision.*

Heidegger:

"And so, what does it mean that we are met here in this hall of the university? It is a sign that there exists a new common resolve to throw up a bridge between those who labour with their hands and those who perform brain work. Scholarship (Jud: for *scholarship* read: philosophy] is not the possession of a restricted class of citizens to misuse as a weapon for the exploitation of those who do the work; it is only a stronger and therefore more responsible form of that knowledge that the whole German people must demand and seek for the sake of its historico-political existence,"

Jud:
In other words *philosophy* in the service of politics. [and this means HEIDEGGER'S politics] Heidegger:

Heidegger:
"The production of the miner is not fundamentally less spiritual than the action of the scholar. "The workers" and "scholarly knowledge" form no contrast. Every worker is a learned man in his own way, and only as such can he work. The animal remains shut off from the privilege of work, which is denied to him. Every one who consciously decides and acts is a worker.

For this reason the resolve to throw up a living bridge cannot any longer remain an empty wish in you, any more than in us. The resolve to complete procurement of work by the procurement of knowledge must become in us inmost certainty, not flagging belief. For in what that resolve demands, we are but following the glorious will of our Fuhrer. To become one of his loyal following means to desire wholeheartedly and undeviatingly that the German people may once more find its growing unity, its true worth and true power, and may procure thereby its endurance and greatness as a work State."

"To the man of this unprecedented resolve, our Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, let us give a threefold "Heil!"

Translated by D. D. Runes From Martin Heidegger Philosophical and Political Writings. Edited by Manfred Stassen. The German Library, Continuum Int Pub Co

I have never read in all my life a more strident, politically engaged, rhetorical, committed, magniloquent exhortation to blend and UTILISE philosophy INSTRUMENTALLY with politics than this example of Heidegger's, which was delivered from the podium of the philosophy department of a philosopher who was also the official fuhrer of the university where this philosophico-political lecture was given.

Jud Evans 27 Jan 2005.