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Derrida. Farias's would-be indictment has disrupted the coronation;
voices are being raised on all sides, and the last strains of this in–
tellectual hymn ring with a sinister undertone.
As sociology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism decline, phi–
losophy is again coming into its own in France. One proof is that the
controversy over Heidegger has found its way into every branch of
French cultural life. Not only scholarly magazines but even the daily
newspapers have given the debate regular coverage, and discussions
among experts are being waged on radio and television. Journalists,
writers, and scholars are all taking part. The intensity of the debate
(now in its ninth month), as well as the stagy, inbred character of
Parisian intellectual life, has prompted Jacques Derrida to describe
these media events with an expression much in vogue: in an inter–
view discussing the question, he described their usage as typically
"Franco- French." His phrase also refers to the fact that a great deal,
some say the lion's share, of Farias's findings have been reported and
recognized in Germany for many years. The same linguistic and
mental barriers which explain the overdue literary event may also be
at work in the sudden realization that serious flaws remain in our
understanding of Heidegger's development.
Writing in a French weekly, German philosopher Hans-Georg
Gadamer was positively at a loss to understand. "The uproar caused
by this book is astounding. Was so little known about the Third
Reich?" The resonance of that question explains his position better
than any of his other remarks that the book is already "far out of
date" (and that its problems are more than a matter
ofjacts).
Gadam–
er's bewilderment is typical of many earlier treatments of the ques–
tion of Heidegger's 1933 engagement as Rector of the University of
Freiburg and his simultaneous enrollment in the Nazi Party. Han–
nah Arendt, writing in 1969 to honor the philosopher's eightieth
birthday, addresses the political question in a footnote near the end
of her essay. "This escapade which today - now that the bitterness
has subsided and, especially , now that justice has to some extent
been done regarding the innumerable pieces of false evidence - is
referred to most often as [H's] error, this escapade has many differ–
rent aspects . . .. "The rest of the long footnote is of the same tenor:
it does not so much hedge as waver, and perhaps even insinuate that
now that the dust has settled ... things may not be so clear. Or
take Jean Beaufret, Heidegger's long-standing disciple and the or–
thodox conduit of his thought in postwar France. In 1984 he replied
to a questioner, "Heidegger never did anything which could moti-
l
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