Few philosophers continue to interpret the world from the
strict perspective of such Heideggerian fundamentals as a MetaGreece
of poetic thinking. For a while, claims to be working in ontology
routinely demanded political clarifications and a taking of sides: in his
first footnote to Being and Event, published in 1988, Alain Badiou included
a discussion of his distance from both orthodox Heideggerians and
their humanist critics. Nevertheless, though the strict, uncritical French
following of Heidegger came largely to an end, it is premature to
conclude, with Ferry and Renaut (and to a certain degree with
Rockmore’s pessimism), that Heidegger is finished in France. In the
very least, phenomenologians and philosophers deeply indebted to
Heidegger continued to hold very significant positions. In 2003, in
another major institutional “success,” Heidegger became an established
part of the questions for the agrégation en philosophie. Moreover, as noted
already, the post-‘87 corpus of works is significant and, for the most
part, adequately informed by the problem of Heidegger’s Nazism. A
generation of younger, somewhat more critical if still deeply indebted
philosophers has taken up the space left open by the Heideggerians’
collapse, approaching him through a more careful perspective and often
centering on his very early work. It is also too soon to assess if a relative
decline of Heidegger’s influence, in favor of the more recent turns
toward philosophies of life (notably toward Bergson and Deleuze)
and, especially, the turn toward analytic and post-analytic philosophy—
is either of long-term significance or related to the political question.
