response to ambivalent praise for Habermas

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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.

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Heidegger’s politics: from interpersonal lifeto new generationality

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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:

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winter 2026

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See the site home page for the current update.

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“Beyond “God”: danger of authentic life” responds to a scholastic dispute
at an online discussion group. It may be useful for anyone who believes that Heidegger is anti-theological. He’s anti-dogmatism. It’s a distraction from working to derive a better sense of literary-conceptual work, which will continue from my February discussions soon.

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Feb. 20 | “creating novel wilderness isn’t about tourism” prospects more interest in literary creativity.

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Feb. 13 | Three more sections of a manifold exploration of “literary” dramactionality today: “being literary,“ “the humanistic origin of literary texting,“ and “the usual ‘Literature’.“ The project will have many sections,
later to be listed as a single set of cohering discussions.

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