heidegger's being and time and national socialism - Philosophy ...

third one has been counted as truth and the more
primary ones have been covered up. 74
In sum, in the discussion of each existential in
Division One of Being and Time Heidegger characterizes
modern life and modern philosophy as a
double forgetting, as a formation that is derivative
and that covers up its relation to its origin and
claims to stand on its own feet. The mode of understanding
other Dasein practiced by the modern
individual covers up a primary understanding
without which it would not be possible, and the
modern philosophers interpret everything in
terms of substances and cover up the dimension
of the world. In addition, in the discussion of the
They as well as in the one of truth, the last section
in Division One, Heidegger indicates that the origin
was present and acknowledged in the past. 75
These two features are the first part of the structure
of temporalized metaphysics and in Division
Two of Being and Time Heidegger enacts the second
part, the return of the origin. Already in the
section on the They Heidegger emphasizes—
without giving examples but often in a pretty derogatory
tone—that the They and fallen Dasein
cover up new possibilities. 76 These sentences
already address the issue of the return of the
origin.
Death, Conscience, and Temporality
in Division Two of Being and Time
For liberals and social democrats, there was
no divergence between the “real” logic of history
and the individuals’ understanding of the working
of history, and the individuals assumed that
their political activities—the promotion of liberalism
or social democracy—were in line with the
forward flow of history itself. By contrast,
rightists and communists assumed that in the
kairos, in the decisive moment, it became patent
that the “real” logic of history—its main actor
and its temporality—differed from what the liberal
and social democratic followers of progress
had thought about it. From that moment on, the
“intention” of history has to be realized by the
“proxy” of history against the resistance of liberals
and social democrats (and communists or
rightists, respectively). 77 As was already said,
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rightists and communists turned in opposite directions,
communists—like the social democrats
but with different means and toward an end further
down the road—toward a new society while
rightists re-realized in the name of destiny a past
community that had been pushed aside by society.
According to Scheler, there is the level of our
explicit and conscious ethical norms and judgments,
B, and below it the fundamental and primary
level of our, often unconscious, ethical feelings,
A. After its establishment, the ethics of
liberalism or society on level B had been supported
for some time by the corresponding feelings
on level A. However, at some point destiny
begins to be active. Already before it openly enters
the stage of history and delivers its command,
it spreads new feelings on level A and on
level A renews the ethos of community. From
that point on, people sense more and more that
there is something new in the air, and the ethics of
liberalism and social democracy become beleaguered.
Liberals and social democrats try to
ignore and suppress the new, but they will finally
be washed away when the ethics of community
will reestablish itself also on level B. 78
Heidegger’s theory of a double forgetting at
work in modern philosophy and society corresponds
to the theories of Scheler before his turn
and Lukács regarding the discrepancy between
the assumptions about history and its “real”
logic. When destiny raises its voice, Dasein recognizes,
as in Scheler but not in Lukács, destiny
and community as the main players, and Dasein
also recognizes that its narrative of progress and
autonomy falsifies the loss of community as an
improvement. In his theory of the modes of solicitude,
Heidegger disapproves of liberalism and
social democracy, and moves to the right and not
to the extreme left. With his statements, just mentioned,
about inauthentic Dasein suppressing
new possibilities Heidegger repeats Scheler. In
Division Two, Heidegger treats the way out of
fallenness—the issue of authenticity—and the
temporal interpretation of the existentials. I present
the notions of death, conscience, and the temporal
interpretation of the existentials before returning,
in the next section, to §74 for a summary
of my interpretation of its decisive sentences.