Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger

Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France and Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

"Bourdieu is a sociologist with a remarkably wide range of competences, and his short book on Heidegger, published before the recent revelations of the philosopher's devoted commitment to Nazism through and beyond the defeat of the Third Reich, is a brilliant contribution to what is now called 'contextualization' (i.e., of Heidegger's thought). Richard Rorty dismissed Heidegger's Nazism on the ground that it had nothing to do with his philosophy; no reader of Bourdieu's book will be able to continue to believe this for a moment."—Common Knowledge "Bourdieu's book is the single most illuminating contribution to an understanding of the social and political meaning of Heidegger's work. It is extremely stimulating in its methodology, which is an outstanding model of a sociological approach to philosophy, and in the light it casts on the current debate over Heidegger and Nazism. Bourdieu's book stand apart from the other books and articles on the political implications of Heidegger's philosophy."—Jean-Joseph Goux, Brown University "Bourdieu's short study of the overlap between politics and philosophy in Heidegger's work is the most exciting and thought-provoking contribution to the recent flood of writings on this topic so far. Written in 1975, long before the furor started by Victor Farias' 1987 Heidegger and Nazism, Bourdieu tells us his essay is intended not as an indictment of Heidegger, but as an 'exercise in method,' (though this claim comes to seem disingenuous before one is through). What fascinates Bourdieu is the way Heidegger implants a 'vulgar,' conservative message in what is supposed to be pristine, 'essential' philosophical thinking. . . . Bourdieu's approach helps to situate Heidegger's texts within the wider context of social and historical developments of his time."—Canadian Philosophical Review

• Preface; Introduction: skewed thinking; 1. Pure philosophy and the Zeitgeist; 2. The philosophical field and the space of possibilities; 3. A 'conservative revolution' in philosophy; 4. Censorship and the imposition of form; 5. Internal readings and the respect of form; 6. Self-interpretation and the evolution of the system; Notes; Index.