Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On the Hidden Roots of our Time. The Secret Thought of Heidegger’s “Black Notebooks”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Heidegger and Contemporary Philosophy

Part of the book series: Contributions to Hermeneutics ((CONT HERMEN,volume 8))

  • 358 Accesses

Abstract

The paper focuses on the problematic pattern of the Black Notebooks in a crucial and dramatic period of Heidegger’s course, that is the one between the thirties and the forties of the last century. In particular, (a) Heidegger’s relationship with National Socialism will be outlined (from “barbaric” to “spiritual” to “vulgar”) and (b) the interpretation of World Judaism and (c) modern Christianity (a real hendiadys) as a figure of nihilism, namely that of fulfilled metaphysics. From the implication of these three elements, the fundamental feature of the Notebooks can thus be found. This critical reconstruction aims to survey the trend, which is widely present in the philosophical literature of the last decades of the XXth century, of a post-metaphysical and post-Christian (commonly “post-modern”) image of Heidegger’s thought. The paper intends to replace the core of the unsolved tangle of his thought: the broken confrontation with modernity and his clinch with the Cristlichkeit. It could be said that what appeared to be solved to him was the possible future of his presence in the philosophy of our time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Information on Heidegger’s decision was reported by his Assistant and main editor of «Gesamtausgabe», F.-W. von Herrmann, in the Post-scriptum in Besinnung, GA 66, pp. 433–434. These treatises were already published in the Complete Work, except for Die Stege des Anfangs (The Paths of Beginning).

  2. 2.

    A first series of Notebooks, those from 1931 to 1941 (in 3 volumes) are called «Ponderings» (Überlegungen); those going from 1942 to 1951 (in 2 volumes) are called »Annotations» (Anmerkungen). Nevertheless it is known that further several Notebooks were drafted by Heidegger until the early seventies, with different titles, and whose publishing is expected in five further volumes (for a total of 34 Notebooks). While 5 volumes are already published in the «Gesamtausgabe», 4 other volumes are expected: Vier Hefte (Four Notebooks, GA 99); Vigiliae and Notturno (GA 100); Winke (Intimations, GA 101); Vorläufiges (Provisionals, GA 102).

  3. 3.

    Cf. von Herrmann (2016, p. 33).

  4. 4.

    Ibidem.

  5. 5.

    Cf. Trawny (2014, p. 23) and Di Cesare (2016, pp. 227–229).

  6. 6.

    Cf. Mazzarella (2018, pp. 79–80).

  7. 7.

    For the context of this development see Nolte (1992, chap. IX).

  8. 8.

    For this quotation and the following see GA 94, p. 194; Ponderings and Intimations III, in Black Notebooks 1931/1938, p. 142.

  9. 9.

    See V. Farias (1987, part III) and, in a much more extreme way, Faye (2005, chap. IX). See also Losurdo (1991, chap. VII).

  10. 10.

    For this reading direction see Pöggeler (1999, pp. 207–213).

  11. 11.

    GA 94, p. 135; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 99.

  12. 12.

    GA 94, p. 136; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 100, italic by H.

  13. 13.

    GA 94, pp. 136–137; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 100.

  14. 14.

    GA 94, p. 136; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 99.

  15. 15.

    GA 94, p. 142; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 104.

  16. 16.

    GA 94, p. 143; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 105.

  17. 17.

    Heidegger’s letter to his brother, Fritz, (18th December 1931) stated: “It seems that Germany is rising, comprehending and grasping its destiny. I strongly wish that you may confront yourself with Hitler’s book [Mein Kampf], which even it is weak in the first autobiographical chapters. Nobody can sensibly disagree with the fact that this man owns, and always did, a certain political instinct and out of the ordinary, while all of us were clouded. The National Socialist movement will get many other strenghts in the future. It is no longer matter of a little policy of a party – but of the rescue or the sunset of Europe and of Western culture. Whoever, even now, does not catch it, is worth of crumbling in the caos”: in Homolka, Heidegger (2016, pp. 21–22).

  18. 18.

    GA 94, p. 348; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 253.

  19. 19.

    This quotation and the following, GA 94, p. 348; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, pp. 253–254.

  20. 20.

    Heidegger’s political disillusion with regard to National Socialism has been also interpreted as the sunset of a “utopian” perspective of realization of the Greek polis in the Germans’ state: see F. Fistetti, Heidegger e l’utopia della polis, in part. pp. 72 ss.

  21. 21.

    In one of the Notebooks of “Annotations” dating the Mid-Forties, Heidegger will write: “The real mistake by the “Rectorate 1933″ was not much in evaluating that I, as some other more intelligent subjects, had not recognized “Hitler” in his “essence” and then, together with them, had resentfully put myself aside in the circle of those who are lacking of will - that is the same circle of those who have it -; rather it lied in my thinking that it had come the time to become initial - historical, not with Hitler, but through people’s awakening in his Western destiny”: GA 97, p. 98.

  22. 22.

    GA 95, p. 408; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 318.

  23. 23.

    What follows will reconsider some of the reflections propagated in C. Esposito, Heidegger, l’ebraismo e il cristianesimo nei “Quaderni neri”.

  24. 24.

    GA 95, p. 96; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 75.

  25. 25.

    GA 95, pp. 96–97; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, pp. 75–76.

  26. 26.

    GA 95, p. 97; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 76.

  27. 27.

    GA 96, p. 46; Ponderings XII-XV, in Black Notebooks 1939–1941, p.37.

  28. 28.

    GA 96, p. 46; Ponderings XII-XV, in Black Notebooks 1939–1941, p. 44., italic by H.

  29. 29.

    GA 96, p. 243; Ponderings XII-XV, in Black Notebooks 1939–1941, p. 191, italic by H.

  30. 30.

    «La banalité, dans le cas de Heidegger, est celle de la doxa de l’antisémitisme telle qu’elle circulait en Europe dans les années 1920–1940 et telle qu’elle ressurgit de nos jours, singulièrement en France et en Allemagne, en Grèce et un peu partout»: J.-L. Nancy, Banalité de Heidegger, p. 11.

  31. 31.

    GA 97, p. 20. – In the Black Notebooks, Heidegger deals with “annihilation” as a “self-annihilation”, also in different contexts, not referring specifically to Judaism: see F. Alfieri, I «Quaderni neri». Analisi storico-critica sine glossa, in part. il § 5.2, «“Selbstvernichtung”: dalle Überlegungen alle Anmerkungen» », pp. 297–319.

  32. 32.

    In her volume Heidegger and the Jews. The “Black Notebooks”, Donatella Di Cesare interprets this passage in the sign of a «metaphysical anti-Semitism», for which the «final solution» of the Jews was to be charged to the Jews themselves as their ontological responsibility, even though they had been the victims (in part. pp. 227–229). Di Cesare reads Heidegger, and in particular the “Black Notebooks”, as an opportunity (but as a pretext as well) to «philosophically think “what had happened”, thus not the Third Reich only, nor Auschwitz, but the “Judaic question” of Western philosophy» (pp. 32–33). Regarding the same researcher, and the same theme, you can also read the pamphlet Heidegger & Sons. Eredità e futuro di un filosofo, which offers a new approach to Heidegger’s entire thought process from the anti-semitism of the Notebooks. – On the contrary, Peter Trawny, in his Heidegger und der Mythos der jüdischen Weltverschwörung (p. 23 and passim) dealt with an «anti-Semitism following the history of being» (seinsgeschichtlich). However, both of them do not seem to be justified, both on a textual level as well as to a theoretical one. Certainly, when Heidegger deals with Judaism (as well as many other themes), he sets it in the context and in the perspective of the history of metaphysics (and of being); but this does not allow one to “essentialize” anti-semitism (which was not theorized by Heidegger as such, and was different from anti-Christianity) as the fundamental and intrinsic feature of his thought. – On this problem, see the balanced report by L. Messinese, La “questione ebraica” nei «Quaderni neri» considerata alla luce della “critica alla metafisica”. – The dossier on Heidegger’s supposed «anti-Semitism» has been understood also in the perspective of the (lack of) ethical responsibility of his thought: cf.the debate offered in: A. Fabris (ed.), Metafisica e antisemitismo. I Quaderni neri di Heidegger tra filosofia e politica, in part. The contribution by the same Fabris in «Heidegger: l’ambiguità della decisione tra filosofia e politica», pp. 109–128. A recent documentation of this debate is in A.J. Mitchell & P. Trawny (2017) (edd.).

  33. 33.

    GA 96, p. 138; Ponderings XII-XV, in Black Notebooks 1939–1941, pp.107–108.

  34. 34.

    GA 97, p. 20. – This relationship between Judaism and Christianity was dealt with by F. Brencio in her essay that was published in F. Brencio (ed.), La pietà del pensiero. Heidegger e i «Quaderni neri», pp. 107–186. See also R.M. Marafioti, Gli «Schwarze Hefte» di Heidegger. Un «passaggio» del pensiero dell’essere, in part. pp. 114–122,

  35. 35.

    GA 97, p. 20.

  36. 36.

    GA 95, p. 326; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 254.

  37. 37.

    GA 95, p. 345; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 269. For a more positive reading of the relationship between Heidegger and Pascal, which could be seen as a kind of “erased trace”, see A. Raffelt, Heidegger und Pascal – eine verwischte Spur.

  38. 38.

    Cfr. GA 95, p. 8; Ponderings VII-XI, in Black Notebooks 1938–1939, p. 7. – On this reading direction, see O Pöggeler, Heideggers Weg von Luther zu Hölderlin, in part. pp. 178–186.

  39. 39.

    On the trace inherited and also removed in Heidegger’s discourse on Judaic tradition, see M. Zarader, Il debito impensato. Heidegger e l’eredità ebraica.

  40. 40.

    GA 94, p. 522; Ponderings II-VI, in Black Notebooks 1931–1938, p. 380.

  41. 41.

    GA 94, pp. 522–523, italic by H. – J.-L. Nancy (Banalità di Heidegger, «Supplemento», pp. 67–69) based on this passage, it could be hypothesized that perhaps Heidegger thought that Christianity could have resisted to Western decline, and not only “accomplish” it.

  42. 42.

    On this, it would be worthy to reconsider a question posed by Derrida: Heidegger’s anti-Christianity is unrecoverable, or could it be assumed as the essential truth (namely no longer «metaphysical») of Christianity itself, but as its «super-original spirit»? But if so, it would be then a «pre-super-original», that would result anything else but what it allows as possible, and so something essentially different from Christianity itself. See J. Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question University of Chicago Press (1989), pp. 124 ss.

  43. 43.

    GA 97, p. 205. – Heidegger’s writing on Nietzsche’s «God’s death» (dating to the academic courses held between 1936 and 1940) points out: «For Nietzsche, Christianity is the historical, secular-political phenomenon of the Church and its claim to power within the formation of Western humanity and its modem culture. Christianity in this sense and the Christian life of the New Testament faith are not the same. Even a non-Christian life can affirm Christianity and make use ofit for the sake of power; conversely, a Christian life is not necessarily in need of Christianity. Therefore, a confrontation with Christianity is by no means an absolute battle against what is Christian»: Nietzsches Wort «Gott ist tot», in: GA 5, pp. 219–220; eng. transl., Nietzsche’s Word: “God is dead”, in: Off the Beaten Track, p. 164.

  44. 44.

    GA 97, p. 206.

  45. 45.

    Ibidem, p. 199. – A rapid notice to the relationship on incompatibility between grace and thought, moving from this passage, can be found in J.-L. Nancy, Banalita di Heidegger, «Supplemento», p. 76.

  46. 46.

    • See C. Esposito, L’essere, la storia e la grazia in Heidegger, particularly. pp. 204–207.

  47. 47.

    GA 97, p. 83.

  48. 48.

    Ibidem, p. 59. – On the dramatic drafting of these passages of Black Notebooks after war, see Di Cesare Heidegger e gli ebrei, pp. 233–238.

  49. 49.

    GA 97, pp. 99–100.

  50. 50.

    GA 97, p. 159.

Bibliography

  • GA = «Martin Heidegger Gesamtausgabe», Franfurt a.M.: Klostermann 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 5 = Holzwege, Hrsg. F.-W. von Herrmann, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 1977 (engl. transl. by J. Young & K. Haynes, Off the Beaten Track, Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 45 = Grundfragen der Philosophie. Ausgewählte “Probleme” der “Logik” [WS 1937/38], Hrsg. F.-W. von Herrmann, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 19922 (engl. transl. by R. Rojcewicz, A. Schuwer, Basic Questions of Philosophy. Selected “problems” of “logic”, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 65 = Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) [1936-38], Hrsg. F.-W. von Herrmann, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 1989 (engl. transl. by R. Rojcewicz, D. Vallega-Neu, Contributions to Philosophy. (Of the Event), Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 66 = Besinnung [1938-39], Hrsg. F.-W. von Herrmann, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 1997 (engl. transl. by P. Emad, T. Kalary, Mindfulness, London-Oxford: Continuum 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 94 = Überlegungen II-VI (Schwarze Hefte 1931-1938), Hrsg. P. Trawny, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 2014; engl. transl. by R. Rojcewicz, Ponderings II-VI. Black Notebooks 1931-1938, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 95 = Überlegungen VII-XI (Schwarze Hefte 1938-1939), Hrsg. P. Trawny, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 2014; engl. transl. by R. Rojcewicz, Ponderings VII-XI. Black Notebooks 1938-1939, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 96 = Überlegungen XII-XV (Schwarze Hefte 1939-1941), Hrsg. P. Trawny, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 2014; engl. transl. by R. Rojcewicz, Ponderings XII-XV. Black Notebooks 1939-1941, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 97 = Anmerkungen I-V (Schwarze Hefte 1942-1948)], Hrsg. P. Trawny, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • GA 98 = Anmerkungen VI-IX (Schwarze Hefte 1948/49-1951)], Hrsg. P. Trawny, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Cesare D. 2016. Heidegger e gli ebrei. I «Quaderni neri», Torino: Bollati Boringhieri (engl. transl. Heidegger and the Jews. The Black Booknotes, Cambridge: Polity Press 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  • Esposito C. 2017. Introduzione a Heidegger. Bologna: il Mulino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farias V. 1987. Heidegger et le nazisme, Paris: Verdier (engl. transl. Heidegger and Nazism, Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • Faye E. 2005. Heidegger, l’introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie. Autour des séminaires inédits de 1933-1935, Paris: Albin Michel, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homolka W., Heidegger A. (Hrsg.) 2016. Heidegger und der Antisemitismus. Positionen in Widerstreit. Mit Briefen von Martin und Fritz Heidegger, Freiburg i.Br: Herder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Losurdo D. 1991. La comunità, la morte, l’Occidente. Heidegger e l’«ideologia della guerra», Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazzarella E. 2018. Il mondo nell’abisso. Heidegger e i «Quaderni neri», Vicenza: Neri Pozza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell A.J & Trawny P. (ed. by) 2017. Responses to Anti-Semitism, New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nancy J.-L., Banalité de Heidegger, Paris: Galilée 2015; italian transl. with a «Supplemento»: Banalità di Heidegger, Napoli: Cronopio 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolte E. 1992. Martin Heidegger. Politik und Geschichte im Leben und Denken, Berlin: Propyläen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pöggeler O. 1999. Philosophie und Nationalsozialismus – am Beispiel Heideggers. In Id., Heidegger in seiner Zeit, München: Fink, pp. 195–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trawny P. 2014. Heidegger und der Mythos der jüdischen Weltverschwörung, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann (engl. transl. Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  • Volpi F. (a cura di) 2005. Guida a Heidegger, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Herrmann F.-W. 2016. Necessarie chiarificazioni sui «Quaderni neri». In von Herrmann F.-W., Alfieri F. 2016, pp. 23–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Herrmann F.-W., Alfieri F. 2016. Martin Heidegger. La verità sui «Quaderni neri», Brescia: Morcelliana.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Costantino Esposito

Authors
  1. Costantino Esposito
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Costantino Esposito .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Filosofia “Piero Martinetti”, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Carmine Di Martino

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Esposito, C. (2021). On the Hidden Roots of our Time. The Secret Thought of Heidegger’s “Black Notebooks”. In: Di Martino, C. (eds) Heidegger and Contemporary Philosophy. Contributions to Hermeneutics, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56566-4_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation