Sunday, May 24, 2015
Genius Is No Guarantee Against Bigotry
As for the now infamous "black notebooks," we should be no more surprised that Martin Heidegger tried to couch his anti-Semitism in his new language of "being" than that Thomas Jefferson couched his racism in the language of Enlightenment era "science" of race.
Genius is absolutely no guarantee against bigotry. If it were, we should adopt Plato's political schema in The Republic forthwith and never look back.
Heidegger was a man and, as a man, must be permitted his personal opinions and politics. His readers, likewise, are entitled to find his opinions and politics unforgivably reprehensible. We are under no obligation to adopt them ourselves and anyone who would suggest otherwise is a mere sycophant and a fool.
End of story.
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