Eine Knabe, der träumt, or: Intoxicated by Power

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the issues associated with the publication of Martin Heidegger’s Black Notebooks. We attempt to explain the very publication of this document as a kind of experiment the philosopher conducted on himself and his future readers. It represents a unique form of “deferred” thought that brings us the content of a bygone era, albeit necessarily refracted through contemporary perception. What ensures the integrity of this experiment is, on the one hand, the physical “absence of the author,” who cannot himself influence assessments of his text and actions, and on the other hand, a simultaneous “return of the author,” since his opinion must be taken into account. This thus serves as a kind of refutation of the postmodern “death of the author,” as his thoughts must be taken into account even in the case of his physical absence. We also investigate the problem of the philosopher’s ideological “intoxication” with the ideas of the National Socialist revolution, as manifested in his activities as a philosopher-ideologist while serving as Rector at the University of Freiburg. We analyze a number of the philosopher’s speeches in that regard and touch on the question of his responsibility for the ideas he “cast” into the world.