Nietzsche's Heidegger, Heidegger's Havel: Philosophy, Politics and Morality

by Emile Bojesen

Superficially, Martin Heidegger and Vaclav Havel, as public intellectuals, sit on the two sides of ’evil’ and ’good’ in the history of the twentieth century. Heidegger’s identity and the appreciation of his thinking has been tainted by his association with Nazism, while Havel’s legacy is less concerned with his thinking and more with his stand for freedom and democracy against Soviet oppression. Neither reading does either figure justice in terms of the rigor of their thought. While it is impossible to dissociate Heidegger from his political action, he suggested that evidence for his intellectual divergence from fascism could be found in particular in his 1936-1940 lectures on Nietzsche (who has himself been accused of being an inspiration to the Nazis). Havel, whose politics could not have been more different, was significantly influenced by Heidegger’s philosophy and his political decisions were grounded in his own serious philosophical thinking. This book will explore, on both Heidegger and Havel’s terms, whether or not there are aspects of the former’s thinking which lead away from fascism and helped allow for the possibility of a liberal and democratic political morality to be developed by the latter.

170 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2017