Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
History and Memory; Studies in Representation of the Past
Angaben zur Quelle:
10,1 (1998) 25-58
Keywords:
Lévinas, Emmanuel
;
Heidegger, Martin,
;
National socialism Philosophy
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Argues that Levinas underwent a personal and philosophical crisis when Heidegger, his mentor, came out in support of Nazism in 1933. Levinas's "guilty conscience" may have catalyzed his development from an orthodox Heideggerian to a thinker who saw a link between Heidegger's philosophy of "Being" and the imminentist, body-oriented philosophy of Nazism. Levinas discussed Nazism as a pagan assault on the freedom of Judeo-Christianity. Despite its attraction for him, the brutal political implications of Heidegger's thought made it unacceptable. For Levinas, Judaism came to represent the antipode of Nazism-Paganism-Heideggerism. "Being" was replaced by "Being Jewish." This Judaism was suprahistorical and universalistic, with the Jew symbolizing the rejection of all "paganism" in favor of a transcendentally-based ethics.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
