Heidegger, History and the Holocaust

Mahon O'Brien is a Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Sussex, UK. He is the author of Heidegger and Authenticity: From Resoluteness to Releasement (Continuum, 2011)

• AbbreviationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter One – Re-assessing the ‘Affair’The ‘Affair’ and the rhetorical rules since World War IIHeidegger’s refusal to recantHeidegger’s Remarks on the HolocaustChapter Two – The Essence of Technology and the HolocaustHeidegger’s ‘Agriculture Remark’ as EpigraphThe Holocaust and the ‘Revealing’ Rhetoric of the Final SolutionThe Wannsee Conference ProtocolAuschwitz: Factory of DeathBut Where Have We Strayed to?Chapter Three – Heidegger’s Heritage: Philosophy, Anti-Modernism and Cultural PessimismAdorno and the ‘Jargon’ of German AuthenticityBourdieu and Heidegger’s Ontological PoliticsZimmerman and the ‘Influence’ of SpenglerOswald Spengler – Man and TechnicsErnst JungerTotal MobilizationBodenständigkeit, Gelassenheit and the Memorial AddressChapter Four – The Authentic Dasein of a PeopleHeidegger and the Authentic Dasein of a PeopleFreedom Toward DeathChapter Five – Heidegger and Anti-SemitismNature, History, StateThe Origin of the Work of ArtThe Self Assertion of the German UniversityThe Nazi RectorConclusionBibliographyIndex

O’Brien’s work is an important contribution to the growing debate around Heidegger’s political and ideological sympathies ... I welcome [his] attempt toward a reconstruction of Heidegger’s philosophy.