Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes Heidegger's rhetoric in his most famous political address, the Rektoratsrede, which he delivered at the University of Freiburg on 27 May 1933. After I set out the political and philosophical kairos of the Rektoratsrede by drawing on Heidegger's contemporary lectures, letters, and Ponderings, in part 2 I use classical rhetorical resources and Heidegger's philosophy of temporality in Sein und Zeit (1927) to analyze the arrangement of his speech. In part 3, I examine two key National Socialist terms in the speech's climax. In part 4, I consider Heidegger's elocutio—his artful use of charged figures of speech and thought in the Rektoratsrede—in more detail. Concluding remarks reflect on the value and limits of the analysis in the context of debates about Heidegger's politics and its imbrication with his thought.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2018-05-31
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.51.2.0176
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 16 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bernasconi, Robert. 1985. The Question of Language in Heidegger's History of Being. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave…
  2. Chapoutot, Johann. 2014. La loi du sang. Paris: Gallimard.
  3. Elden, Stuart. 2005. “Reading Logos as Speech: Heidegger, Aristotle and Rhetorical Politics.” Philosophy and …
  4. Fritsche, Johannes. 1999a. “Heidegger in the Kairos of ‘The Occident.’” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 2…
  5. Fritsche, Johannes. 1999b. Historical Destiny and National Socialism in Heidegger's “Being and Time.” Berkele…
  6. Fynsk, Christopher. 1991. “But Suppose We Were to Take the Rectorial Address Seriously … Gerard Granel's De l…
  7. Givsan, Hassan. 2011. Une histoire consternante: Pourquoi des philosophes se laissent corrompre par le “cas H…
  8. Heidegger, Martin. 2016. Ponderings II–VI: Black Notebooks 1931–1938. Trans. Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington: …
  9. Kellerer, Sidonie. 2014. “Heidegger et le nazisme à travers sa correspondence avec sa famille et Kurt Bauch,”…
  10. Kisiel, Theodore. 2009. “Situating Rhetorical Politics in Heidegger's Protopractical Ontology 1923–25: The Fr…
  11. Phillips, James. 2005. Heidegger's Volk: Between National Socialism and Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University…
  12. Rastier, François. 2009. “Heidegger aujourd'hui—ou le Mouvement réaffirmé.” Labyrinthe 33 (2): 71–106.
  13. Sluga, Hans. 1993. Heidegger's Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer…
  14. Smith, Stephen. 2006. Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  15. Thomson, Iain. 2003. “Heidegger and the Politics of the University.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 41 …
  16. Young, Julian. 1998. Heidegger, Philosophy, Nazism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network →