Nature, History, State

Nature, History, State: 1933-1934 presents the first complete English-language translation of Heidegger's seminar 'On the Essence and Concepts of Nature, History and State', together with full introductory material and interpretive essays by five leading thinkers and scholars: Robert Bernasconi, Peter Eli Gordon, Marion Heinz, Theodore Kisiel and Slavoj Žižek.

The seminar, which was held while Heidegger was serving as National Socialist rector of the University of Freiburg, represents important evidence of the development of Heidegger's political thought. The text consists of ten 'protocols' on the seminar sessions, composed by students and reviewed by Heidegger. The first session's protocol is a rather personal commentary on the atmosphere in the classroom, but the remainder have every appearance of being faithful transcripts of Heidegger's words, in which he raises a variety of fundamental questions about nature, history and the state. The seminar culminates in an attempt to sketch a political philosophy that supports the 'Führer state'. The text is important evidence for anyone considering the tortured question of Heidegger's Nazism and its connection to his philosophy in general.

"This fine collection…provides both an excellent translation of the seminar protocols themselves, as well as insightful scholarly essays that read them in and against Heidegger's other works from after Being and Time(1927) through the delivery of the ‘Introduction to Metaphysics lectures of 1935." - Notre Dame Philosophical Review

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers.

Gregory Fried is Professor of Philosophy at Suffolk University, Boston, USA.

Richard Polt is Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University, Cincinnati, USA.

Contributors: Marion Heinz, Theodore Kisiel, Peter Eli Gordon, Robert Bernasconi, and Slavoj Žižek.

About the Contributors
Editors' Introduction
Part I: On the Essence and Concept of Nature, History, and State
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
Session 8
Session 9
Session 10
Part II: Interpretive Essays
Volk and Führer Marion Heinz
Heidegger in Purgatory Peter E. Gordon
Who Belongs? Heidegger's Philosophy of the Volk in 1933-34 Robert Bernasconi
The Seminar of Winter Semester 1933-34 Within Heidegger's Three Concepts of the Political Theodore Kisiel
Heidegger in the Foursome of Struggle, Historicity, Will, and Gelassenheit Slavoj Žižek
Endnotes
Index