This is a fantastic podcast series, Stephen, no question about it. But I'm surprised that you can't see how Heidegger's support for Nazism could arise so naturally from his philosophy. Surely the appeal of populist demagogues - the appeal of their philosophies, such as they are - owes a lot to their straight-talking authenticity, usually espousing a nostalgic and often nativist vision of a more authentic world of the past to which, for our own sanity, we should want to return - that is, those of us with an authentic (i.e. ancestral, native) connection to that past world. That was the appeal of Nazism to so many Germans, as it seems to have been for Heidegger. Perhaps I'm being simplistic, but it strikes me that, for all his intellectual sophistication, Heidegger was at best colossally naive about the implications of this doctrine of authenticity, and at worst dishonest about those implications. Or perhaps belief in Nazism in this philosophy of being is absolutely fine as long as that belief is authentically held. Such a position is now again becoming increasingly, and worryingly, mainstream. It needs more intellectual critique than it gets and more than you give it here.
These are very interesting points you make here. 'Authenticity' deserves a lot more troubling. As you say, essentialism is so attractive and so dangerous, to be 'true' to some virtue, honestly, motherhood, kindness etc. Seems so at hand, but can be so divisive and exclusive that we erase our 'thrown' falleness and forget we are dust...
Love this truth on living authentically as a dasein: "...[the way most people talk with each other is] more idle chatter, rather than actual speech. The same way you see science as curiosity, rather than actual understanding..."
I always feel isolated in conversation. Just last night I got in an argument with someone about what a lie is. To them, simply being wrong or ill-informed, is to be lying. I contested that there has to be a willful aspect of misdirection or deception for them to be lying.
Yes! However, I'd say that it's usually actually more of a negative defintion: something isn't lying if it was said in earnest. Thus, if a computer (or even a book) says something wrong, you can still attribute lying to it. A major part of this might just be, though, that people are offended if you attribute bad motives to them, whereas an inanimate object will not be.
Wow. Really amazing pod there, felt like it was much less than 31 minutes! This is the first vid of your channel that I encounter, and I definitely think you should have more followers! Amazing content!
I'm gonna die?? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Loving this content man, been binging your videos for about a week or two now. I love the way in which you present these complex ideas I've been ruminating for years on. Thank you!
Excellent, thank you Steve I am just trying to get a grip of Heidegger at the minute and this view has been very useful to me. Thank you much appreciate and a great overview as I plough through Being and Time and The Question Concerning Technology along with other key works.
My intense journey into authenticity began after having watched Westworld. It may sound ridiculous because it's all just scripted dialogue/monologue but it left a huge impact on me, the outstanding acting by Hopkins and Harris probably helped!
Than you for another great episode. Heidegger is much more enjoyable after this. I also think you should provide predatory buffalo T-shirts in your merchandise.
Spend more time on grave yards is nice since grave yards are peaceful, beautiful, historical, serene places to stroll idle listening to the singing of birds but for the noble purpose of becoming more authentic in the sense of more acutely aware of the tangible reality of life with an absolute end point meaning death I will raise stakes and correct the late Heidegger and suggest: spend more time with dying persons in hospitals etc. Measure death face to face, watching the last breaths of human beings, the last glances of half-blind dim eyes, last sounds coming out of a dry mouth of a person you love... this is it. Become yourself and then return to the place you once called home.
You are perceptive ... you are right ... no matter which road, it's always death ...wakes you up, opens your eyes ...makes philosophy look like children's games ....
Thanks again for a fine lecture! Heidegger told people to spend more time in graveyards. Heidegger was a Nazi. Is there a better illustration to the German idiom: Gedacht? Getan! 80 years ago there were three twin brothers, who when they became 18 went to a holy wise man, to get advice for life. To the first the old man said: Every morning ask yourself: Who Am I? To the second he said: Every morning tell yourself: One day, sooner or later, I will die. To the third he said: Every morning ask yourself: What useful can I do today? The first got so entangled in the riddle of Who Am I, that he died of neglect and illness after one year. The second got so depressed by the knowledge that he was going to die, that he committed suicide after half a year. The third is still living today, soon he will celebrate his 100th birthday, he has achieved beautiful useful things, created a fine family of many happy offspring of 6 generations, and in fact, most of you know him quite well from CNN and Fox News. This is the glory of philosophy.
Liked your show, as always. It sounds like the philosopher is saying the best thing a person can do is study philosophy, which is a situation to be cautious about (other philosophers (I think even Nietzsche) mention this.) Of course I can’t find it now, but there was an article in the New York Times which said grand plans/life goals distract people from just existing (which the author said is the best way to live), which people normally don’t discover until retirement (if they are so lucky.) I’m curious if Heidegger would agree or if living authentically requires great effort? And of course H. being a Nazi makes me wonder how his philosophy allowed him to do that.
I this "fallenness" you're referring to the translation of his "Geworfenheit"? I didn't read his works so far, but heard it in another video. If so, a better translation for "Geworfenheit" would be "thrownness" because "werfen" ist actually the act of throwing. Nevertheless magnificent podcast! You have an awesome delivery which makes it thrilling to listen to.
fallenness refers to inauthenticity. it means to fall for inauthentic interpretation or what Heidegger calls "öffentliche Ausgelegtheit". It is a term he uses more commonly in his early Freiburg lectures though.
This episode sounded Woody Allen-esque ...Since about 60% of our lives is spent on sleeping, eating, hygiene, and errands, we only have 40% of our lives to be authentic! Thank goodness ... because it sounds like awfully hard work if you listen to the philosophers 😉
So after escaping the facticity, historicity and camelness of your inauthentic life, you should double down on it, this time knowingly? That's it?? Why?
Thing is, 10,000 B.C. man didn't get to chose the things he cared about either. He was tied to the hunt and the soil and the herd he had to join to survive. This era of man may have been closer to nature and looked at it with a deeper level of respect but he too was exploiting it. Just that he had to be physically steeped in it to do so. These being's probably feared nature too as they were in real jeopardy of being killed by it through starvation or mauling of animals. Today's modern man just more efficient and exploiting and at more of an arm's length. Today's man can practice preservation and go into nature voluntarily now in a recreational way that 10,000 B.C. man couldn't.
That's more about looking directly into being as it is, rather than nature exploiting. Those old guys were just existing as beings in the being, without any theories. We have our brains quite garbaged and separated from that direct perspective.
this guys has 3 balls, one extra for the analysis and simplifying. Well done 🔥🔥🔥👏
Wise snippets near the end of the video. Thank you very much Steven West. :)
This is a fantastic podcast series, Stephen, no question about it. But I'm surprised that you can't see how Heidegger's support for Nazism could arise so naturally from his philosophy. Surely the appeal of populist demagogues - the appeal of their philosophies, such as they are - owes a lot to their straight-talking authenticity, usually espousing a nostalgic and often nativist vision of a more authentic world of the past to which, for our own sanity, we should want to return - that is, those of us with an authentic (i.e. ancestral, native) connection to that past world. That was the appeal of Nazism to so many Germans, as it seems to have been for Heidegger. Perhaps I'm being simplistic, but it strikes me that, for all his intellectual sophistication, Heidegger was at best colossally naive about the implications of this doctrine of authenticity, and at worst dishonest about those implications. Or perhaps belief in Nazism in this philosophy of being is absolutely fine as long as that belief is authentically held. Such a position is now again becoming increasingly, and worryingly, mainstream. It needs more intellectual critique than it gets and more than you give it here.
These are very interesting points you make here. 'Authenticity' deserves a lot more troubling. As you say, essentialism is so attractive and so dangerous, to be 'true' to some virtue, honestly, motherhood, kindness etc. Seems so at hand, but can be so divisive and exclusive that we erase our 'thrown' falleness and forget we are dust...
Authenicity: to live a conscious life. Inauthenticity: to live in automatic pilot.
Love this truth on living authentically as a dasein: "...[the way most people talk with each other is] more idle chatter, rather than actual speech. The same way you see science as curiosity, rather than actual understanding..."
i was studying heidegger for my final exam and now i stop studying and really thinking. thank a lot for introducing him
I always feel isolated in conversation. Just last night I got in an argument with someone about what a lie is. To them, simply being wrong or ill-informed, is to be lying. I contested that there has to be a willful aspect of misdirection or deception for them to be lying.
Yes! However, I'd say that it's usually actually more of a negative defintion: something isn't lying if it was said in earnest. Thus, if a computer (or even a book) says something wrong, you can still attribute lying to it. A major part of this might just be, though, that people are offended if you attribute bad motives to them, whereas an inanimate object will not be.
Great introduction to Heidegger’s thought. You may just be the “Hardcore History” for philosophy. That’s a very good thing, IMO. Keep it up!
Wow. Really amazing pod there, felt like it was much less than 31 minutes!
This is the first vid of your channel that I encounter, and I definitely think you should have more followers! Amazing content!
I'm gonna die?? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Loving this content man, been binging your videos for about a week or two now. I love the way in which you present these complex ideas I've been ruminating for years on. Thank you!
Best explanation of Heidegger I've ever heard. Thank you; I'll be listening to this again.
Excellent, thank you Steve I am just trying to get a grip of Heidegger at the minute and this view has been very useful to me. Thank you much appreciate and a great overview as I plough through Being and Time and The Question Concerning Technology along with other key works.
The final sentence was really powerful.
I like the way you animate the meaning you are conveying. I used to ride my daughter through a grave yard twice a week. She hates me now!
My intense journey into authenticity began after having watched Westworld.
It may sound ridiculous because it's all just scripted dialogue/monologue but it left a huge impact on me, the outstanding acting by Hopkins and Harris probably helped!
thank you for this series! It is influential for my further studies
Than you for another great episode. Heidegger is much more enjoyable after this. I also think you should provide predatory buffalo T-shirts in your merchandise.
yeah he is not only was entertaining but a proud NAZI
Sir, you just saved me from failing my Heidegger philosophy class. I owe my degree to you, cheers.
Spend more time on grave yards is nice since grave yards are peaceful, beautiful, historical, serene places to stroll idle listening to the singing of birds but for the noble purpose of becoming more authentic in the sense of more acutely aware of the tangible reality of life with an absolute end point meaning death I will raise stakes and correct the late Heidegger and suggest: spend more time with dying persons in hospitals etc. Measure death face to face, watching the last breaths of human beings, the last glances of half-blind dim eyes, last sounds coming out of a dry mouth of a person you love... this is it. Become yourself and then return to the place you once called home.
You are perceptive ... you are right ... no matter which road, it's always death ...wakes you up, opens your eyes ...makes philosophy look like children's games ....
Late to the party. phenomenally articulated to be digestible. Well done sir.
30:16 "but truly facing the reality of death, Heidegger thinks, makes us into true individuals."
I dunno but I got goosebumps
Thanks again for a fine lecture!
Heidegger told people to spend more time in graveyards. Heidegger was a Nazi. Is there a better illustration to the German idiom: Gedacht? Getan!
80 years ago there were three twin brothers, who when they became 18 went to a holy wise man, to get advice for life. To the first the old man said: Every morning ask yourself: Who Am I? To the second he said: Every morning tell yourself: One day, sooner or later, I will die. To the third he said: Every morning ask yourself: What useful can I do today?
The first got so entangled in the riddle of Who Am I, that he died of neglect and illness after one year.
The second got so depressed by the knowledge that he was going to die, that he committed suicide after half a year.
The third is still living today, soon he will celebrate his 100th birthday, he has achieved beautiful useful things, created a fine family of many happy offspring of 6 generations, and in fact, most of you know him quite well from CNN and Fox News.
This is the glory of philosophy.
Very engaging, thank you!
14:54 Authenticity/inauthenticity
I love you
I think Steven west is unconditionally handsome, regardless of his facticity.
Liked your show, as always. It sounds like the philosopher is saying the best thing a person can do is study philosophy, which is a situation to be cautious about (other philosophers (I think even Nietzsche) mention this.) Of course I can’t find it now, but there was an article in the New York Times which said grand plans/life goals distract people from just existing (which the author said is the best way to live), which people normally don’t discover until retirement (if they are so lucky.) I’m curious if Heidegger would agree or if living authentically requires great effort? And of course H. being a Nazi makes me wonder how his philosophy allowed him to do that.
Fascinating, but isn't this just an incredibly elaborate presentation of simple self-help concepts?
If this were heard in a church, I am sure, at least, someone would call out, "Preach it, Brother!"
"Rest stops on the giant road trip of life.... oh, well I'm more authentic than that person over there"
I this "fallenness" you're referring to the translation of his "Geworfenheit"? I didn't read his works so far, but heard it in another video. If so, a better translation for "Geworfenheit" would be "thrownness" because "werfen" ist actually the act of throwing. Nevertheless magnificent podcast! You have an awesome delivery which makes it thrilling to listen to.
fallenness refers to inauthenticity. it means to fall for inauthentic interpretation or what Heidegger calls "öffentliche Ausgelegtheit". It is a term he uses more commonly in his early Freiburg lectures though.
This episode sounded Woody Allen-esque ...Since about 60% of our lives is spent on sleeping, eating, hygiene, and errands, we only have 40% of our lives to be authentic! Thank goodness ... because it sounds like awfully hard work if you listen to the philosophers 😉
“Papa” 😂😂
good! good!
if there's someone awake, someone authentic, some lion turned into a child, reach out to me.
subbed
11:47 12:03 12:49 20:12
So after escaping the facticity, historicity and camelness of your inauthentic life, you should double down on it, this time knowingly? That's it?? Why?
more heidegger pls
17:24
Thing is, 10,000 B.C. man didn't get to chose the things he cared about either. He was tied to the hunt and the soil and the herd he had to join to survive. This era of man may have been closer to nature and looked at it with a deeper level of respect but he too was exploiting it. Just that he had to be physically steeped in it to do so. These being's probably feared nature too as they were in real jeopardy of being killed by it through starvation or mauling of animals. Today's modern man just more efficient and exploiting and at more of an arm's length. Today's man can practice preservation and go into nature voluntarily now in a recreational way that 10,000 B.C. man couldn't.
That's more about looking directly into being as it is, rather than nature exploiting. Those old guys were just existing as beings in the being, without any theories. We have our brains quite garbaged and separated from that direct perspective.
Dude, you just won't give the predatory buffalo a fair shake. They are simply doing what any other apex predator does.
Ulan Badem
👊🏻
Memento mori