To believe that European discourse can keep National Socialism at a distance, like an object, is at best a naïve hypothesis, but at worst a political mistake. One then pretends that National Socialism had no contact with the rest of Europe, with other philosophers, with other political and religious languages, Jacques Derrida points out in a conversation with Didier Eribon. And yet, from World War II to the present, philosophers have ignored the most important self-representations of National Socialism. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf is still considered a book unworthy of philosophical discussion. This attitude sheds light on philosophy itself. Does it possibly find too much of itself in "Mein Kampf"? And what is it exactly that she finds there? Trawny's reading of Hitler's book does not avoid the possibility of a continuity between philosophy and National Socialism. It is an encounter with a hatred that threatens us simply because it once seized power and dominated the life of society. There is no reason to think that the hatred has passed away.
Peter Trawny is a German philosopher born in 1964 in the Ruhr area. He is a professor at the university of Wuppertal, Vienna and Shanghai. He is the co-editor of the complete works of Martin Heidegger and founded the Martin Heidegger Institute in 2012. His work mainly focuses on political philosophy, ethics, art and media philosophy, all to understand globalization and cosmopolitanism.
