Heidegger, Philosophy, and Politics: The Heidelberg Conference, Derrida Jacques, Gadamer Hans-Georg, Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe

In 1988, in the wake of the recent publication of Victor Fariass Heidegger and Nazism, and of the heated debates that ensued, these questions had become more pressing than ever. The reflections presented by three of the most prominent of Heideggers readers, improvised in French and transcribed here, were an attempt to approach these questions before a broad public, but with a depth of knowledge and a complex sense of the questions at issue that have been often lacking in the press. Ranging over two days and including exchanges with one another and with the audience, the discussions pursed by these major thinkers remain highly relevant today, especially following the publication of Heideggers already notorious Black Notebooks, which have added another chapter to the ongoing debates over this contested figure. The present volume recalls a highly charged moment in this history, while also drawing the debate toward its most essential questions.