Martin Heidegger & a Politics of Care
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2016 The aP th Not Taken: Martin Heidegger & a Politics of Care Andrea Danielle Conque Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Conque, Andrea Danielle, "The aP th Not Taken: Martin Heidegger & a Politics of Care" (2016). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1097. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1097 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE PATH NOT TAKEN: MARTIN HEIDEGGER & A POLITICS OF CARE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Andrea Danielle Conque B.A., Louisiana Scholars’ College, 1999 M.A.L.A., Louisiana State University, 2001 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2002 May 2016 © 2016 Copyright Andrea D. Conque All rights reserved ii Acknowledgements There are many people without whom this dissertation would not have come to fruition. It has been a long, rewarding journey. I thank, first and foremost, my parents Judge Durwood and Rusti Conque for their continuing support over the years and in so many ways. For their intellectual guidance and friendship, I thank Drs. Cecil Eubanks, Greg Schufreider, François Raffoul, Hussein Sarkar – who originally set me on this path, James Houk, and Janice Stein. I also thank the many friends, former colleagues, and others who have helped me along my own path. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Part I. Heidegger, Politics, & The Political 2. Heidegger & Politics In Context ................................................................ 14 I. Heidegger’s Politics ............................................................................. 14 II. Heidegger Before Being and Time ...................................................... 18 III. Three Approaches ............................................................................... 24 3. The Taken Path ........................................................................................... 58 I. The Communitarian & Authoritarian Moment .................................... 69 II. The Moment of Place & Polis ............................................................. 90 III. The Defensive Moment ..................................................................... 116 Part II. From Selfhood To Solicitude: Heidegger’s Politics Of Care 4. Three Fundaments .................................................................................... 126 I. Authenticity (Eigentlichkeit) ............................................................. 127 II. Dasein-with (Mitdasein) .................................................................... 137 III. Care (Sorge) ...................................................................................... 157 5. On Conscience & Responsibility .............................................................. 168 I. The Three Fundaments: A Brief Re-Visitation ................................. 168 II. On Conscience (Gewissen) ................................................................ 169 III. Responsibility & ‘Originary Ethics’ ................................................. 177 IV. Import for a Politics of Care ............................................................. 185 6. The Path Not Taken: A Politics Of Care ................................................ 187 I. Práxis, Poiēsis, Phronêsis ................................................................. 188 II. A Politics of Care .............................................................................. 198 7. On A Politics Of Care In Heidegger’s Later Works ............................................................................................. 211 Ends .......................................................................................................... 222 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 231 Vita .................................................................................................................................. 242 iv Abstract This volume addresses two particular lacunae in the scholarship concerning the intersections between Martin Heidegger, politics, and the political. First, it traces the politico- philosophical path that Heidegger took as he moved on to more ontic considerations after publishing his master work – Being and Time – and identifies three significant ‘moments’ in that progression : the Communitarian and Authoritarian moment; the Moment of Place and Polis, and the Defensive Moment. Second, it presents a robust vision of a nascent ‘politics of care’ in Being and Time, dependent upon three key elements: authenticity (Eigentlichkeit), Dasein-with (Mitdasein), and a special type of care (Sorge) – authentic solicitude. The politics of care described herein additionally has several Aristotelian elements, including the notions of human flourishing, práxis, poiēsis, and phronêsis. v Another day. I follow another path, Entering the leafing woodland, visit the spring Or the rocks where the roses bloom… -Friedrich Hölderlin Chapter 1: Introduction Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) is, unquestionably, one of the most influential and important texts of the twentieth century. Enquiries concerning the intersection between the Heideggerian corpus and the political have, however, been rife with speculation and great debate. This volume is not intended to reignite the debate centered on whether or not Heidegger’s philosophical texts also contain a vestige of his personal politics. Instead, the ambition of this project relates to Heidegger’s philosophical choices as he moved on to more ontic considerations after Being and Time. I begin with the premise that a political theory, albeit in nascent form, does indeed exist in Being and Time – and that its foundations are the three fundamental notions of authenticity (Eigentlichkeit), Dasein-with (Mitdasein), and a special type of care (Sorge), authentic solicitude (Fürsorge). The project of the current work is twofold: to elaborate on the nascent political theory in Being and Time and, secondarily, to explain why Heidegger did not develop this theory himself. In other words, what will be accomplished is the development of a Heideggerian ‘politics of care’ out of an existing structure in Being and Time. Indeed, the task at hand is to identify the extant theory, to elaborate upon it in a way that Heidegger did not choose, and to initiate a discussion of the possible consequences of this extant theory. Furthermore, the importance and originality of the current work is threefold. First, although the question of the relationship of Heidegger’s philosophy to his politics has been a 1 matter of considerable interest in the scholarly world, a Heideggerian political theory unrelated to his theories on a potential Führer-state has never been attempted. Crafting a positive political theory from the fundaments in Being and Time is of significance, not only as a central part of understanding Heidegger as a philosopher, but also for its meritorious implications for the study of political theory. Second, as it may safely be argued that one of the fundamental questions of political theory writ large is how human beings ought or should live together, the nascent theory elaborated upon and investigated in this work has potentially far-reaching implications. Third, beyond serving an interpretive function, this exploration of a nascent politics of care could serve to transform our way of thinking about human relationships, ethics, and care of one another. Never has there been a riper time for discovering new and innovative ways in which to seriously address Heidegger’s relationship to political theory. Within the last two years, the last installment in Heidegger’s self-directed collected works has been published in Germany – the “Black Notebooks.” Preliminary analyses of Heidegger’s personal, philosophical journals seek to offer final and incontrovertible evidence, not of Heidegger’s linkage to the Nationalist Socialist Party, but of his anti-Semitism. It therefore seems that it is timely to identify and pursue new potential pathways for Heidegger’s thought to traverse, chiefly in a primary text that was published before Heidegger’s personal foray into politics. The volume at hand seeks to achieve just that – a new way in which to view Heidegger’s thought previous to his involvement with National Socialism, specifically located in Being and Time. In this endeavor, I hope to create something entirely new: a politics of care as is in nascent form