Beyond Struggle and Power: Heidegger's Secret ... - Interpretation

3 6 Interpretation
to understand politics; we must both ascend and descend, and take the time to
adjust our understanding to both realms.( Heidegger’s reading of this passage
completely ignores this point, and simply presents the philosopher as an
enlightened liberator who is likely to be killed by the deluded masses: GA 34,
80–94; GA 36/37, 180–85. A further flaw in Heidegger’s reading is that it is far
from obvious that Plato is really teaching us that we can possess knowledge of
essences [Fried 2006].) In his blindness, Heidegger resembles Plato’s caricature
of the “philosopher”: “his next-door neighbor has escaped his sight
[lelêthen]—not only what his neighbor is doing, but almost whether he is a
man or some other creature. Instead, the question [the philosopher] investigates
is: what is man?” (Theaetetus 174b; the passage is sometimes read as
Plato’s sincere praise of the philosophical life, but a little reflection shows that it
contradicts Socrates’ own behavior in this very dialogue—it is actually a satire
on abstract theorists such as Theodorus, the astronomer and mathematician
who is Socrates’ interlocutor in this passage). Heidegger laments “the annihilation
of the essence of humanity” (GA 77, 207), but he fails to face up to the
“complete annihilation” of particular human beings that he himself had
endorsed in 1933.
To Heidegger’s credit, he saw through and passed beyond
Nazi ideology and the metaphysics of struggle and power. But in doing so, he
also passed beyond and overlooked all concrete struggles and powers.
Heidegger passed beyond the political—and never returned.