response to ambivalent praise for Habermas

---

German philosophy professor Ruth Edith Hegengruber, Director of the Center for History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Germany, posted a memorial article on Habermas at her Facebook account and at a Heidegger forum which I discuss below.

The text of her German article is available below (“Europa heute”) along with a translation (“Europe Today”). My discussion doesn’t address her criticisms of recent history in Europe (I’m a U.S. reader) nor her praise for Habermas. Rather, I want to address her critical comments which seem based on misunderstanding.

This is also a chance to sketch what Habermas’s thinking might best be supposed to entail for progressive practice and practical thinking, though briefly, occasioned by Hegengruber’s discussion.

---

Heidegger’s politics: from interpersonal lifeto new generationality

---

My brief “beyond ‘God’: danger of authentic life” follows a lot of discussion (unmentioned) where a reader who was interested in political extremism associated that with theologian Judith Wolfe’s article on Heidegger as appar-
ently dangerous to neo-Scholasticism, as if—for the extremist—Heidegger shows solidarity with extremism because he’s supposedly anti-modern
(he isn’t), then also anti-Catholic (he isn’t).

My discussion with the extremist sympathizer evinced for me some constructive themes of Heidegger’s thinking which I want to share here.

These are extracted from comments elsewhere, so some of the passages here may seem to be non sequiturs:

---