Martin Heidegger Comes to America

• In Event: Politics and Particularity from Kant to Heidegger

Abstract

The transmission of thought from teachers to students is always uncertain. Students sometimes take turns for better or for worse that teachers did not anticipate. This paper examines the reception and transformation of Martin Heidegger's thought among his students who came to America. What I attempt to show is the difficulty of "translating" Heidegger's thought not merely into English but into a radically different philosophical and political environment. I argue that the attempt to connect Heidegger's students who came to America with his politics is overwrought. The paper focuses on the thought of Arendt, Strauss, and Rorty.

Author

• Michael Allen Gillespie, Duke University