HEIDEGGER AND SOCIAL THOUGHT
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
Harvard University
Social Studies 98ng
Dr. Rodrigo Chacón
Hilles Library 54
Office hours: Mondays, 2-4
chacon@fas.harvard.edu
Fall Semester, 2014
Wednesdays, 4-6
Barker Center 103
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was arguably the most influential thinker in the twentieth century
Continental tradition. Perhaps no other thinker since Hegel has exercised a comparable
sovereignty over fields ranging from philosophy and theology, to ecology, psychology,
psychiatry, architecture, the theory of art, and, increasingly, social and political thought. Few
thinkers have also been as controversial. Indeed, Heidegger’s support of National Socialism has
cast a long shadow over his dazzling fame.
In this tutorial, we begin to read Heidegger as he was read—or heard—by young undergraduates
in the early 1920s. In most weeks, we will read a selection of his work together with a statement
by a major student of his thought. In order to provide an overview of Heidegger’s work as a
whole, we shall also study selections from his later writings. In particular, we shall seek to show
(1) how his most famous work, Being and Time (1927), opens up when read in the light of his
early interpretations of Aristotle; (2) how those interpretations inspired some of the most
powerful currents of contemporary social and political thought; and, ultimately (3), the sense in
which his project to interrogate the foundations of science—including social and political
science—remains alive and urgent.
READINGS (available for purchase on Amazon. All other readings can be downloaded from the
course website):
George Steiner, Heidegger (Chicago, 1991)
Martin Heidegger, Towards the Definition of Philosophy (Continuum, 2008)
Martin Heidegger, Plato’s Sophist (Indiana, 1997)
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. MacQuarrie and Robinson (Harper, 2008). (Make sure
to get this translation.)
Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (Harper, 1977)
EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
This tutorial is designed as a seminar and research workshop. Its success will depend on the
informed participation of every member in our weekly meetings. Students will also be expected
to communicate beyond the class through weekly blog entries and collaborative assignments.
A central goal of a junior tutorial is to provide students with research skills and experiences that
will prepare them to write their senior theses. The following requirements have been designed to
achieve that goal:
Weekly blog entries
Every week the group will be divided in pairs. Every Monday (before midnight), half of the group
will post short responses to the reading (max. 500 words). The other half will reply to their
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partners’ response by Tuesday (also before midnight). The blog is meant not only to extend the
dialogue beyond class but also for you to keep a journal with reactions, questions, as well as
citations and quotations. The most helpful entries will probably include all four.
Presentations
Beginning on week 3, each student will read a short paper (3-5 double-spaced pages) to be
followed by questions and comments. (Depending on the number of participants in the seminar,
each student will present once or twice during the semester.) These papers should identify
problems or puzzles in the readings assigned for that week and propose answers to them. That is,
they should take a stance on the reading by developing a thesis, even if it’s a very specific thesis
or a seemingly minor point. (The problem can be anything from “What is going on here?” or
“What is the author trying to say?” to “How does this change the way we think about x?”) These
short papers may also incorporate secondary literature from the recommended reading (or
beyond).
Please print out your papers and bring copies for your peers. (Students presenting papers need not
write blog responses that week. Papers are due on Tuesdays before midnight.)
Research paper
The big question. Think of a big question or problem that you would like to investigate
during the semester. Write this question down and explain why it is interesting in a short memo of
around 500 words. The big question is due on week 4 (October 1) during tutorial. (The question
may also be small with a narrow focus, but it should be big in terms of your interests or the things
that matter to you.)
The answerable question. After discussing your big question with me, you should
narrow it down into a version that can be answered within the limits of a research paper. Write
down your answerable question, including notes on the sources with which you plan to address it
in a memo of between 500 and 1000 words. The answerable question is due on week 7 (October
22) during tutorial.
The introduction draft. Write a first version of the introduction to your paper. Make
sure to include the following 4 points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
your question;
the problem or puzzle it raises—or why the question matters;
your guiding thesis (addressing the question);
the steps your paper will follow to develop the thesis.
Include in a separate document an annotated bibliography with at least 10 sources, explaining
briefly (max. 3 sentences) how each source will contribute to developing your thesis. The
prospectus is due on week 10 (November 12).
The final research paper will be due on Friday December 17 at 5pm in my mailbox in
Social Studies. The final paper should be 20-25 pp. (double-spaced; 12-font; 1-inch margins).
Note: I will not read drafts of the final research paper. However, I will be happy to discuss your
paper projects at length. Extensions will only be granted on the basis of personal emergency or
medical necessity verified with a note from your doctor or Resident Dean.
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One-on-one meetings. We should meet at least three times during the semester, ideally
on weeks 5 or 6 to discuss the big question, 7 or 8 to discuss the answerable question, and 11 to
discuss your introduction. Please schedule an appointment with me during office hours (Mondays
2-4 Hilles 54).
GRADING
 Blog entries: 20% of your grade
 Paper presentations: 20%
 Timely submission of big question, answerable question, and introduction: 10%
 Final paper: 50%
(Late papers will be graded 1/3 of a letter grade lower for each day that they are late.)
Collaboration policy:
Collaboration Permitted in Written Work
Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this
course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to
share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if
you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written
work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects
your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this
discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with
your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc.), you must also
acknowledge this assistance.
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS:
Week 1 (9/10): Introduction: Heidegger’s Breakthrough to Phenomenology (1919)
George Steiner, Heidegger (all)
Martin Heidegger, Towards the Definition of Philosophy, pp. 51-99
Week 2 (9/17): The “Natorp Report”: A Heideggerian Grundrisse? (1922)
Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Martin Heidegger—85 Years,” 111-120
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books I, VI, X, chapters 6-9
Martin Heidegger, “Phenomenological Interpretations with Respect to Aristotle,” Part I, 358-384
Week 3 (9/24): Heidegger’s Reading of Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI (1924-25)
Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Man and Language,” 59-69; “The Universality of the Hermeneutical
Problem,” 3-17
Martin Heidegger, Plato’s Sophist, 5-44
Week 4 (10/1) Continued
Martin Heidegger, Plato’s Sophist, 89-129
Recommended: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 312-324
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Week 5 (10/8) The Project of Fundamental Ontology (1927)
Karsten Harries, “Fundamental Ontology and the Search for Man’s Place,” 65-79
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, Introduction (pp. 21-64), section 83 (pp. 486-488).
Franco Volpi, “Being and Time: A Translation of the Nicomachean Ethics?”
Week 6 (10/15) Continued
Charles Taylor, “Overcoming Epistemology,” 1-19
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, sections 9-24 (pp. 65-148)
Charles Taylor, “Self-Interpreting Animals,” 45-76
Week 7 (10/22) The Turning: Subjectivism, Technology, and Nihilism (1930s-50s)
Heidegger, “Why I Stay in the Provinces”
, “The Question Concerning Technology,” in The Question Concerning Technology
, “The Age of the World Picture,” in The Question Concerning Technology
________, “The Word of Nietzsche: ‘God is Dead’,” in The Question Concerning Technology
Week 8 (10/29) Thinking Beyond Humanism (1946)
Martin Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism”
Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism and Humanism”
Recommended: Michel Foucault, The Order of Things, Chapter 10
Week 9 (11/5) Thinking Beyond Philosophy (1950s)
Martin Heidegger, “The Thing”
, “What are Poets For?”
, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”
, “Poetically Man Dwells”
Weeks 10-12 (11/12, 11/19, 12/3) Heidegger and the Social
Based on students’ interests, themes may include:
Philosophy and Nazism
Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics
, “The Self-Assertion of the German University”
, “Only a God can Save us” (Der Spiegel Interview)
, “Letter to the Rector of Freiburg University”
Recommended readings:
Peter Trawny (ed.), On Hegel's Philosophy of Right: The 1934-35 Seminar and Interpretive
Essays
Michael Allen Gillespie, “Martin Heidegger's Aristotelian National Socialism”
Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question
Pierre Bourdieu, The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger
Dominique Janicaud, The Shadow of That Thought
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Heidegger, Art, and Politics: The Fiction of the Political
Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism
Günther Neske & Emil Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National Socialism: Questions
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and Answers
Hans Sluga, Heidegger's Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany
Technology and Environmental Thought
Recommended reading:
Trish Glazeburg, “Heidegger and environmental philosophy”
(ed.), Heidegger on Science
, “Heidegger on Aristotle, Galileo and Newton”
Iain Thomson, Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity
, Heidegger on Ontotheology: Technology and the Politics of Education
Ladelle McWhorter and Gail Stenstad (eds.), Heidegger and the Earth: Essays in Environmental
Philosophy
Timothy Rayner, “Biopower and Technology: Foucault’s and Heidegger’s Way of Thinking”
Andrew Feenberg, Questioning Technology
Nancy J. Holland, “Rethinking Ecology in the Western Philosophical Tradition: Heidegger
and/on Aristotle”
Thomas Sheehan, “Nihilism: Heidegger/Jünger/Aristotle”
Leslie Paul Thiele, “Nature and Freedom: A Heideggerian Critique of Biocentric and
Sociocentric Environmentalism”
Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1
Michel Haar, The Song of the Earth
Hubert Dreyfus, “Heidegger on the Connection between Nihilism, Art, Technology, and Politics”
Michael E. Zimmerman, “Heidegger, Buddhism, and Deep Ecology”
, Heidegger’s Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics, Art
, “Toward a Heideggerean Ethos for Radical Environmentalism”
Silvio Vietta, Heideggers Kritik am Nationalsozialismus und an der Technik
Embodied Philosophy and Feminism
Recommended reading:
Martin Heidegger, Zollikon Seminars
Kevin Aho, Heidegger’s Neglect of the Body
Nancy Holland and Patricia Huntington, eds. Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger
Luce Irigaray, The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger
Finding Meaning in a Secular World, Or: Heidegger and the Question of God(s)
Recommended reading:
Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, All Things Shining
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Hans Köchler, “God in the Thought of Martin Heidegger,” in: S. A. Matczak (ed.), God in
Contemporary Thought
Rafal Kazimierz Wilk, “On Human Being: A Dispute between Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger”
Hans-Georg Gadamer, “The Religious Dimension,” in Heidegger’s Ways
Karl Löwith, “M. Heidegger and F. Rosenzweig or Temporality and Eternity”
Heidegger and Political Thought
Recommended reading:
Stuart Elden, Speaking Against Number: Heidegger, Language and the Politics of Calculation
Daniel Gross (ed.), Heiedegger and Rhetoric
François Raffoul and David Pettigrew (eds.), Heidegger and Practical Philosophy
Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology
Reiner Schürmann, Heidegger on Being and Acting: From Principles to Anarchy
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Leslie Paul Thiele, “Twilight of Modernity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Politics”
Robert Dostal, “Friendship and Politics: Heidegger’s Failing”
Stephen K. White, “Heidegger and the Difficulties of a Postmodern Ethics and Politics”
Fred R. Dallmayr, “Ontology of Freedom: Heidegger and Political Philosophy”
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