The Duplicity of Philosophy's Shadow

Martin Heidegger (18891976) is considered one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century in spite of his well-known transgressionshis complicity with National Socialism and his inability to show remorse or compassion for its victims. In The Duplicity of Philosophys Shadow, Elliot R. Wolfson intervenes in a debate that has seen much attention in scholarly and popular media from a unique perspective, as a scholar of Jewish mysticism and philosophy who has been profoundly influenced by Heideggers work. Wolfson sets out to probe Heideggers writings to expose what remains unthought. In spite of Heideggers explicit anti-Semitic statements, Wolfson reveals some crucial aspects of his thinkingincluding criticism of the biological racism and militant apocalypticism of Nazismthat betray an affinity with dimensions of Jewish thought: the triangulation of the concepts of homeland, language, and peoplehood; Jewish messianism and the notion of historical time as the return of the same that is always different; inclusion, exclusion, and the status of the other; the problem of evil in kabbalistic symbolism. Using Heideggers own methods, Wolfson reflects on the inextricable link of truth and untruth and investigates the matter of silence and the limits of speech. He challenges the tendency to bifurcate the relationship of the political and the philosophical in Heideggers thought, but parts company with those who write off Heidegger as a Nazi ideologue. Ultimately, The Duplicity of Philosophys Shadow argues, the greatness and relevance of Heideggers work is that he presents us with the opportunity to think the unthinkable as part of our communal destiny as historical beings.