Saturday, June 24, 2006
In-der-Blog-sein
Clark comments on a recent book on the Jewish background to Heidegger's thought.
Clark comments on a recent book on the Jewish background to Heidegger's thought.
It is interesting though that Heidegger's mentor was Husserl, a Jew. Many of the prominent Heideggerians were Jews. (Notably Derrida and Levinas) Certainly in Derrida one finds a kind of Heideggarianism that is extremely Jewish. (One need only read Caputo's The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida to see the role Jewish thought plays in Derrida's philosophy.How little Heidegger says about Spinoza has been most surprising to me (there's a bit in the Schelling book), because of both the obvious overlap in their areas of interest, and how much Heidegger wrote about everyone else in the canon who fell into that category. At the same time, I'm somewhat chary of labeling people because of accidents of their birth. Husserl joined the Luthern Church decades before mentoring Heidegger, and Derrida noted: "I quite rightly pass for an atheist". While on this subject, I should also mention Being Jewish/Reading Heidegger, a study of the rhetorical affinities between Heidegger and Jewish texts, which I enjoyed very much. ¶ 7:12 AM
The lack of engagement still is quite interesting. Jewish neo-Platonism offers many obvious parallels to Heidegger's thought. One can also argue that the way Jewish thought approached 'intellectualization' tended to avoid the issue of presence that characterized Greek thought. Further in the history of philosophy one can't help but think of famous Jewish philosophers like Maimonades, Spinoza or others.
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I should add that I don't think their religion is at issue. (Although with Derrida I think the "atheist" issue is more complex than it appears - a strong case could be made that he has a religion of at least quasi-deism stroked with Jewish and Christian rhetoric despite his protests) Rather the question is why, given all the major Jewish figures around Heidegger, he completely neglects them as a kind of influence on western thought.
Western thought as the history of being and thereby as metaphysics is primarily a Greek enterprise with strong German aspects. This is simply a huge blind spot in Heidegger.
Thanks for the other book reference. It sounds more like what I was hoping this book would be like. Although this book is very interesting, it is primarily deconstructive rather than dealing with more apparent parallels.
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Western thought as the history of being and thereby as metaphysics is primarily a Greek enterprise with strong German aspects. This is simply a huge blind spot in Heidegger.
Thanks for the other book reference. It sounds more like what I was hoping this book would be like. Although this book is very interesting, it is primarily deconstructive rather than dealing with more apparent parallels.
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