These letters, translated into English here for the first time,
provide extraordinary insights, both personal and philosophical, into
two major thinkers of the twentieth century. Martin Heidegger and
Karl Jaspers met in 1920 at a celebration marking the sixty-first
birthday of Edmund Husserl. Recognizing in each other a shared vision
of what philosophy should be, they struck up a friendship, which
continued through correspondence carried on over four decades and
which weathered intellectual, social, and personal struggles. While
the first thirteen years of their acquaintance were marked by a
collegial exchange of views on philosophical issues of mutual
interest, their relationship changed significantly in 1933, when
Heidegger publicly supported the National Socialist revolution, and,
as a party member, implemented the National Socialist agenda as
rector of Freiburg University. By contrast, Jaspers, whose wife was
Jewish, was forced into retirement. After the war, during the
Freiburg de-Nazification process, Jaspers sharply criticized
Heidegger's conduct but nonetheless stressed the lasting value of his
philosophical contributions. Despite this conflict, the two men
continued to find common ground and correspnded until 1963. The
letters touch on many points of philosophical interest to both men,
yet only hint at the political turmoil that swirled around them. They
discuss how they came to see themselves as personally connected but
publicly misidentified as "existentialists." There are also many
illuminating exchanges concerning Hannah Arendt, Karl Lowith, Max
Weber, Edmund Husserl, and others. Editors Walter Biemel and Hans
Saner provide a wealth of references and annotations that make these
personal letters accessible to contemporary readers. This first
English translation of the correspondence between two giants of
twentieth-century German philosophy will be of great interest to
philosophers, historians, and anyone intrigued by the Heidegger
controversy.
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