Heidegger, education, nation and race

Abstract

There are many arguments about Heidegger's work Being and Time (1954). Many critics believe that Heidegger provides a new way of understanding ourselves from a philosophical perspective. However, while some critics emphasize the de-Nazification of Heidegger's thinking, other still promote the notion that Being and Time is pro-Nazi. What is more, this new way of understanding brings a new challenge to education. In this paper, the concepts of Volk (people) and its relation with Being and Time is studied. Also, education is investigated in order to bring up authentic Dasein on Heidegger's view. The exploration undertaken in this paper illustrates that the concept of Volk is not, in Heidegger's view, related to the biological features of a race, but to the mood of attunement to Being, which itself is determined by its historicity and its capacity to bring about both differentiation and order. In general, Heidegger's interpretation of work is based on his concept of Dasein in the Being and Time and, as Radloff ((2007) Heidegger and the Question of National Socialism: Disclosure and Gestalt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press) believed, this is not tactical accommodation to Nazism. In Being and Time, Heidegger tries to save Dasein from everydayness and what he calls ‘the they’ by calling attention to be authentic. In Heidegger's (1985) view, the questioning process unlocks the essentials in things by forcing us to focus on what would seem to be simple and obvious. Also questioning Dasein’s beliefs and behaviours unfold the causes of them and is a way of bringing up an authentic Dasein and open-minded person. In order to achieve this, we need an authentic teacher who is not lost in ‘the they’. Hence, we might speculate that if schools follow Heidegger's thinking, they would be attractive places in which to provide situations for students to ask question and not be bored. Students are encouraged to learn while pursuing questions. They are active and eager learners who learn through rethinking matters, even if these matters are completely obvious. They learn about them in a manner that their thinking enters unconcealment. If this were the case, education might lead students to become more thoughtful.