Thinking and Killing: Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow of the Third Reich

117 Pages·2013·1.349 MB·English

by  Alon Segev

Alon Segev
Thinking and Killing

Alon Segev
Thinking
and Killing
Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow
of the Third Reich
ISBN 978-1-61451-128-1
e-ISBN 978-1-61451-101-4
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Foreword
The motivation for writing this book began with my, one might say, naïve belief
that critical thinking could have avoided the rise of the Third Reich and the
Shoah in World War II. The main culprits were put on trial in Nuremberg, and
then came the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem and the Auschwitz trials in Germany.
Later on, the compliancy of Heidegger, Gadamer, and others with the Nazi regime
was exposed by prominent scholars.1 Thus, the personal and public reputations
of Heidegger, Jünger, Schmitt, Gadamer and others were destroyed and then
partly rehabilitated. Their teaching, which was essential in consolidating and
promulgating the Nazi world-view and in creating and designing the atmosphere
of support for the Nazi movement, has, however, mostly remained untouched
and continues to be uncritically studied and referred to. As Alain Finkielkraut
writes:
As Jankélévitch has rightly noted, the extermination of the Jews “was doctrinally
founded, philosophically explained, methodically prepared by the most pedantic doctri-
narians ever to have existed.” The Nazis were not, in effect, brutes, but theorists. It was
not because of blood-thirsty instincts, economic or political interests, or even because
of prejudice that they sacrificed all scruples. On the contrary, it could be said that the
objections and scruples of interest, of instinctive pity, and of prejudice were sacrificed on
the altar of their philosophy of history. “It is thus an erroneous and stupid conception,”
Theodore Fritsch commented as early as 1910 in his Anti-Semite’s Catechism, “to explain
the opposition to Judaism as an outgrowth of a stupid racial and religious hatred, whereas
in fact it is a disinterested battle animated by the most noble ideas, against an enemy of
humanity, morality and culture” (Finkielkraut 1992: 29–30).2
Studies that focus on biography crumble and wind up with the banality of evil
of a mass murderer, the weakness of the human will, rumors of a love affair
between Heidegger and Arendt, the tensed relationship between Heidegger and
Löwith, Gadamer’s alleged collaboration with the Nazis, etc. On the contrary,
provided that Fenkielkraut and Jankélévitch are correct, then understanding the
Third Reich and the crimes perpetrated in its name entails dealing critically with
the philosophy that shaped and justified Nazism.
Heidegger is the most famous and most studied philosopher related to

Nazism. As Domenico Losurdo (2001)and Hans Sluga (1993)show, Heidegger’s
work survived due to its quality and originality. He was, however, part of an
1 See for example Farías (1989), Orozco (1995), Lilla (2003), Wolin (2001, 2004), and Faye (2009).
2 See also the forgotten work by Max Weinreich (1999).
vi   Foreword
expansive intellectual milieu whose members shared similar ideas and support
of Nazism. My study starts with Heidegger because he is the most remembered
and the most currently influential. The first chapter focuses mainly on the Letter
on Humanism. The title suggests an apologetic tone. The content, however,
reveals parallels to his work from the time in which he supported Nazism. The
excursus of the chapter focuses on two approaches to Heidegger—one of approval
by Hannah Arendt, and one of disapproval by Emmanuel Lévinas.
The second chapter focuses on Carl Schmitt’s teaching, which was supposed
to give Nazism its moral and political foundation. His teaching is seen as a blue-
print whose possible translation into reality is unfolded in a short text, which is
provided in the excursus in a new English translation.
The third chapter focuses on Ernst Jünger, who was not a supporter of the
Nazi movement and regime, but whose teaching created the model for the Nazi
warrior and Nazi warfare.3 The trend of Jünger’s philosophy is developed in the
excursus, in a new English translation.
The fourth chapter focuses on Karl Löwith, who points at the relation
between Nazi ideology and German philosophy, especially Heidegger’s. Löwith’s
critique tends sometimes to be personal and not objective, and this tension is
shown and discussed.
The fifth chapter focuses on Hannah Arendt. It considers the flaws in her
historical report in Eichmann in Jerusalem. It shows that these flaws are irrel-
evant to Arendt because her aim in dealing with the case was in fact a philo-
sophical one.
The sixth chapter focuses on Gadamer’s striving to rehabilitate the humani-
ties in reaction to the inhuman phenomenon of Nazism and on his use of
hermeneutics and phenomenology to neutralize detrimental components in the
German language that might lead to catastrophic consequences. It turns out that
despite his ambition, Gadamer falls prey to the philosophy of Heidegger and
Nazism.
The seventh chapter focuses on Jean Améry, who applies terms coined
mostly by Heidegger to his experience as an inmate in the death camps. The
effect of this strategy is a shock that is directed above all at the intellectuals who
continue to maintain the old terminology and philosophy of the Nazi era as if
nothing has changed.
The eighth chapter focuses on Jan Assmann, who claims to have found the
origin of anti-Semitism and annihilation of the Jews in the “Mosaic Distinction.”
Assmann thinks that the Jewish religion introduced into human history the reli-
gious violence that finally led also to the annihilation of the Jews in the Shoah.
3 See Bartov (2000), Vondung (1988).
Foreword   vii
The chapter surveys his manipulative reading of texts from the Jewish tradi-
tion and his conspicuous omission of important details in order to maintain his
theory about the responsibility of the Jews for their own annihilation.
The selection of subjects dealt with in a book is arbitrary, and influential
authors and important texts are left out or referred to only in the footnotes. One
usually resorts to the cliché about the limited scope of the book. Likewise, it
is impossible to mention all the people who assisted and supported. Special
thanks are due to Jeffrey Herf and Alexander Orbach. I am grateful to Michiel
Klein-Swormink, the chief editor at Walter de Gruyter, and his wonderful team
for their support, confidence, and professional work.
The manuscript of this book has gone through numerous iterations, each
different from the previous version due to fruiteful encounters, comments,
advices and disagreements with scholars, students and friends that led me to
re-thinking and re-formulating my theses: Richard Wolin, Mitchell Cohen, Klaus
Vondung, Franz Navon, Reiner Wiehl, Hans-Friedrich Fulda, Mark Lilla, Omer
Bartov, Goerge Heffernan, David Graizbrod, Thomas Sheehan, Robert Dostal,
Peter Kopf, Alexander Dubrau, Jay Ticker, Thomas Meyer, and colleagues and
students at Heidelberg, Cologne, The University of Pennsylvania, The University
of Illinois Springfield, and Fordham University.

Contents
Foreword   v
Introduction   1
Chapter One
Martin Heidegger on Humanism   8
Chapter Two
Carl Schmitt on God, Law, and the Führer   22
Chapter Three
Ernst Jünger on War for the sake of War   35
Chapter Four
Karl Löwith on Sense of Humor and Departure from the German Masters   47
Chapter Five
Hannah Arendt on Banality   55
Chapter Six
Hans-Georg Gadamer on the Phenomenological Disinfection of Language   66
Chapter Seven
Jean Améry on Phenomenology in the Death Camp   78
Chapter Eight
Jan Assmann on Moses and Violence   84
References   93
Index of names   99
Index of subjects   102