Thursday, May 27, 2010

Heidegger, Arendt, Jaspers

I have not seen a plain word spoken on Heidegger handing his willing Arendt to his friend Jaspers.

Heidegger remarks somewhere about Jaspers refusal to leave his Jewish wife.  Did Heidegger imagine in some way that they would share his wood nymph?

Ambiguity remains in just how Heidegger and Arendt negotiated her transfer from Marburg to Heidelberg.  Jaspers response to Arendt's disclosure decades later was something of a surprise.  Was he inept at feigning ignorance?

The "transfer" to the esteemed Jaspers has its counterpart in her loveless marriage to the despised Guenther Stern. And with regard to both Stern and Arendt, the name of Hans Jonas.

In Heidegger's Children, Richard Wolin seems to indicate that there was nothing more to say about Jonas seeking out Arendt: there is no reference to a source. Heidegger simply sent him.

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