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The Spirit of Europe Heidegger and Valéry on the “End of Spirit”

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The Spirit of Europe Heidegger and Valéry on the “End of Spirit” THE SPIRIT OF EUROPE HEIDEGGER AND VALÉRY ON THE “END OF SPIRIT” BJARKE MØRKØRE STIGEL HANSEN A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, LONDON, OCTOBER 2017 1 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written content. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 100.000 words. Statement of conjoint work (if applicable) None of the work was jointly co-authored. Statement of inclusion of previous work (if applicable) None of the work was the result of previous study. Statement of use of third party for editorial help (if applicable) I confirm that my thesis was edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Dr Matthew Nowachek. 2 ABSTRACT ‘Entirely oblivious to the events unfolding on the “other shore,” Europe tolerated that the Mediterranean, her sea, would turn into a graveyard,’ (Cacciari 2016: viii) These words from the Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari’s 2016 study on Europe and Empire indicate to us how Europe today still suffers from a “historical emphysema.” This thesis addresses the question of how these pulmonary difficulties of Europe are related to the process of a history in which the name of Europe comes to be related to and even identified with what is called “spirit.” As is well known, Europe has been conceived as ‘no more than a geographical accident, the peninsula that Asia shoves into the Atlantic’ (Sartre 1988: 292). However, the thesis argues that another definition of Europe, even if intimately bound up with its geography, comes to the fore as the spirit of Europe. In order to bring to light the “spiritual geography” of Europe, I focus primarily on two strands of the twentieth century philosophical inquiry into the notion of “Europe;” one by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the other by the French poet and thinker Paul Valéry. The argument is that what these two thinkers achieve in their thought testifies to the history of an ambiguous relation between Europe and spirit. For both thinkers Europe appears as such only as it is shaped and reshaped by this spiritual relation, one which Europe today retains in its absence, that is, in its spiritlessness. 3 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................... 7 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ 8 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 15 THE SPIRITUAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE .................................................................. 21 THE LOGIC OF EUROPE ............................................................................................. 25 COMPENDIUM ........................................................................................................... 27 PART ONE ........................................................................................................................ 30 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER ONE .............................................................................................................. 36 INTRODUCING HEIDEGGER’S EUROPE .......................................................................... 36 TURNING TO EINFÜHRUNG IN DIE METAPHYSIK ......................................................... 40 THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF METAPHYSICS ................................................... 43 INHERITING THE QUESTION CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF BEING ............................ 46 THE LANGUAGE OF “BEING” .................................................................................... 49 “EUROPEAN NIHILISM” ............................................................................................ 54 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................. 62 HEIDEGGER AND THE GREEKS ..................................................................................... 62 “TO THE GREEKS THEMSELVES” .............................................................................. 63 BEGINNING WITH THE END ....................................................................................... 69 PHILOSOPHY AND THE END OF METAPHYSICS CALLED “EUROPE” ........................... 72 THE TAUTOLOGY OF “EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY” ...................................................... 78 ANAXIMANDER’S SAYING TO HEIDEGGER: THE WITHDRAWAL OF BEING ................ 81 THE DESTINY OF EUROPE: A MATTER OF TRANSLATING BEING ............................... 86 CHAPTER THREE .......................................................................................................... 94 HEIDEGGER’S SPIRITUAL EUROPE ................................................................................ 94 ENGAGING WITH THE AVOIDED: BREAKING THE SILENCE ON SPIRIT ....................... 94 OPENING UP THE QUESTION OF BEING ..................................................................... 97 STAGING THE DRAMA OF SPIRIT: ON THE DARKENING OF THE WORLD .................... 99 THE SPIRIT OF TECHNOLOGY ................................................................................. 104 THE GERMAN QUESTION ........................................................................................ 111 THE GERMAN GEIST ............................................................................................... 117 THE SELF-DISEMPOWERING MISSION OF SPIRIT ..................................................... 120 PART TWO ..................................................................................................................... 124 CHAPTER FOUR .......................................................................................................... 125 4 THE ARCHIVE OF EUROPE .......................................................................................... 125 THE MEMORY OF EUROPE ...................................................................................... 125 UNDER THE HORIZON OF INFINITY ......................................................................... 127 BEING NOT AT ONE WITH WAR: ON UNDOING DEATH ........................................... 130 MORTAL EUROPE ................................................................................................... 135 HISTORICAL NAMES ............................................................................................... 136 AN ABYSS OF HISTORY .......................................................................................... 139 CREMATORIA EUROPE: ON ASHES, ARCHIVES, AND MEMORIES ............................ 142 THE CRISIS OF EUROPE AS A “CRISIS OF CRISIS” .................................................... 147 CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................... 153 DISORDER AS A GENERAL EQUALITY ......................................................................... 153 THE IMAGE OF EUROPE AS A DISORDER OF THE REAL ............................................ 153 THE RESULT ........................................................................................................... 154 “EURYOPA:” LOOKING TOWARDS THE OCCIDENT .................................................. 156 THE UNIVERSAL HORIZON ..................................................................................... 159 “LOSS OF ILLUSIONS” ............................................................................................. 161 THE LIMIT OF MODERNITY ..................................................................................... 163 THE AMBIGUITY OF SCIENCE ................................................................................. 166 COMMODIFYING THE WORLD ................................................................................. 169 THE “WORLD” OF EUROPE ..................................................................................... 171 “THE AGE OF A FINITE WORLD” ............................................................................ 173 GENERAL EQUALITY .............................................................................................. 177 A TASK OF DIFFERENCES ....................................................................................... 180 CHAPTER SIX ............................................................................................................. 185 ECONOMY OF SPIRIT .................................................................................................. 185 THE “SPIRIT” OF 1919 ............................................................................................ 186 A SENSE OF SPIRIT ................................................................................................. 189 THE AMBIGUITY OF SPIRIT
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