Political Philosophy: Hannah Arendt and Aurel Kolnai as Interpreters of the Nazi Totalitarian State
The academic disciplines of philosophy and political science were deeply impacted by National Socialism. The Nazi connections of two luminaries of these fields, Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt, have long been known. But to what degree were Heidegger and Schmitt responsible for fostering and legiti...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Indiana University Press
2022
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| In: |
The betrayal of the humanities
Year: 2022, Pages: 423-448 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Kolnai, Aurel 1900-1973
/ Kolnai, Aurel 1900-1973, The war against the west
/ Heidegger, Martin 1889-1976
/ Arendt, Hannah 1906-1975
/ Arendt, Hannah 1906-1975, The origins of totalitarianism
/ National Socialism
/ Antisemitism
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| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history TK Recent history VA Philosophy ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
National Socialism
B Kolnai, Aurel B Arendt, Hannah B Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism B Heidegger, Martin B Antisemitism B Kolnai: The War against the West |
| Summary: | The academic disciplines of philosophy and political science were deeply impacted by National Socialism. The Nazi connections of two luminaries of these fields, Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt, have long been known. But to what degree were Heidegger and Schmitt responsible for fostering and legitimizing National Socialism? The question is all the more apposite today, since these authors continued to exert a strong influence in the field of philosophy and political theory after 1945. Yet Hannah Arendt’s well-known interpretation of Nazi totalitarianism in The Origins of Totalitarianism (published in 1951) lets the German intellectual elite entirely off the hook. Arendt maintains that authors like Carl Schmitt had “no responsibility” in the Nazi phenomenon, even though Schmitt invented the concept of the Totalitarian State, which Hitler notably took over in a positive sense. Emmanuel Faye demonstrates that from 1950 onward, Arendt contributed more than anyone else to the promotion and defense of Heidegger. She acclaimed him “the hidden king [who] reigned in the realm of thinking.” This contrasts sharply with Aurel Kolnai, the Hungarian-born Jewish philosopher who, as early as 1938, composed The War against the West, a critical study on the National Socialist Weltanschauung. Kolnai analyzes the writings of over 120 authors who contributed to the diffusion of the National Socialist worldview in all fields, from law to theology. Thus, where Arendt excuses the Nazi elite to give them a free pass, Kolnai holds them to account. Faye’s analysis of Kolnai shows how the Nazi world view was shaped, and how to resist it. |
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| ISBN: | 0253060796 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The betrayal of the humanities
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