Heidegger, Arendt, and the Destruction of Thought: From the Black Notebooks to The Life of the Mind?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is devoted to the issue of Martin Heidegger’s influence on Hannah Arendt as an offshoot of the debates over the Black Notebooks and Heidegger’s attitude toward National Socialism. It centers on a critical analysis of the main arguments of French historian of philosophy Emmanuel Faye, who asserted that Arendt’s views on National Socialism underwent a significant transformation under the influence of Heidegger’s philosophy. I demonstrate the counterproductiveness of Faye’s attempts to apply the most radical arguments from the Heidegger debate to analysis of Arendt’s texts and to inscribe this approach into the broader context of the discussion on race and racism in the works of “classical” philosophers. In the course of my analysis, I also discuss the impact of Faye’s work on contemporary Russian reception of Heidegger’s philosophy and the place his research occupies in contemporary Arendt studies.