Heidegger

One moves easily from Herder to Heidegger (here pictured as he liked to see himself, a simple German peasant), although one may also reach Heidegger through the Neo-Kantians with which he early associated himself as well.

Part genius, part snake-oil salesman, Heidegger was, in many respects, a major figure in the Romantic project by which "inherited theological ideas and ways of thinking" were secularized (see M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism, p. 12).

Heidegger's body of work is as vast as it is confused and confusing; I have known gifted intellects to wander into the Black Forest of MH never to return. My impression is that Heidegger's greatest charm is for those who, like him, are obsessed with justifying the failures of their lives rather than accept such failures for what they are--milestones along the way--and move on.

Sartre is Heidegger's greatest disciple and the only reason to return to Heidegger is to better understand what Sartre did with him. Like Jacob wrestling the angel at Jabbock's ford, Sartre grasped Heidegger's genius early, felt his grip slipping as Heidegger oozed his trademark snake-oil, and yet managed to hang on long enough to be transformed from a minor French novelist and playwright to a major 20th century intellectual.

Had there been no Heidegger, there would be no Sartre--not as we have come to know him. When we recognize Romanticism in Sartre, it is often a residue of Heidegger's impact upon him.