PHAIS Seminar Series Week 24: Professor William Blattner (Philosophy)

The PHAIS Seminar Series meets weekly in term time to discuss a paper by a visiting Philosopher, Historian, Art Historian or a member of our academic staff.

Heidegger, Historicality, and National Socialism

Professor William Blattner, Georgetown University

In 1936 Martin Heidegger told his former student Karl Löwith that his path into National Socialism was guided by his concept of historicality. I will present preliminary reflections and tentative hypotheses in response to the question, Could Heidegger's concept of historicality have led him to his engagement with National Socialism? What was the philosophical content of Heidegger commitment to National Socialism in 1933–35? What was his concept of historicality in Being and Time, and is there a path from it to those later National Socialist commitments? 

Biography

William Blattner received his PhD from the University Pittsburgh in 1989 and is currently professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. He is the author of Heidegger’s Temporal Idealism (Cambridge, 1999) and Heidegger’s "Being and Time": A Reader’s Guide (2nd ed., Bloomsbury, 2023). For academic year 2024–25, he is a visiting researcher in the philosophisches Seminar of the University of Freiburg 

The seminar will be delivered in person, but a Zoom link will be available for those who wish to attend remotely. Please email phaispg@essex.ac.uk to request the link.