2022/01/18

Zizek The story of a Chinese migrant worker

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Slavoj Žižek: "The story of a Chinese migrant worker who translated a book about 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger from English into Mandarin went viral last month. Could ordinary people studying philosophy save the world?

Chen Zi was born in 1990 in Jiangxi, in southeast China. In 2008, having failed his exams, he dropped out of university, where he’d been studying mathematics, and roamed the country for over 10 years, working mainly in factories to make a living.

Despite often having to do exhausting 12-hour shifts of repetitive and debilitating labor, Chen, whose real passion had always been philosophy, managed to learn English and began reading Heidegger. This year, while working in a factory in Xiamen, over the course of four months, he finished a translation into Chinese of a book by an American philosophy professor, Richard Polt, titled ‘Heidegger: An Introduction’. Having also completed some other translations, he asked online if anyone could help him publish them, having been told his chances of finding a publisher were very slim. When his post was discovered by the media, he became a hot topic on the internet.

Is there something liberating in this dedication to Heidegger or is it a false way out? It is easy to imagine the orthodox Marxist answer: assembly line workers do not need Heidegger as an antidote; what they need is to change their miserable working conditions.

Heidegger appears to have been a really bad choice for Chen, and for obvious reasons. After the posthumous publication of his private jottings in his ‘Black Notebooks’ in 2017, attempts abounded to exclude him from the list of philosophers to be taken seriously, on account of his anti-Semitism and Nazi links.

However, for this very reason, one should insist that Heidegger remains pertinent: even when he is at his worst, unexpected links open themselves up. In the mid-1930s, he said: “There are human beings and human groups (Negroes like, for example, Kaffirs) who have no history ... however, animal and plant life has a thousand year long and eventful history ... within the human region, history can be missing, as with Negroes.” (“Kaffir” was, at the time of apartheid, an ethnic slur used to refer to black Africans in South Africa.) The quoted lines are strange, even by Heidegger’s standards: so, animals and plants do have history, but “Negroes” do not? “Animal and plant life has a thousand year long and eventful history” – but, for sure, not in Heidegger’s strict sense of the epochal disclosures of being. Besides, where then do countries such as China or India stand, given they are also not historical in Heidegger’s specific sense?

Is this it, then? Should the case of Grant Farred, a noted contemporary black philosopher, born in South Africa, who teaches at Cornell University, in Ithaka, New York, be dismissed as a simple case of misunderstanding?

Farred’s short book ‘Martin Heidegger Saved My Life’ was written in reaction to a racist encounter. In the fall of 2013, while he was raking leaves outside his home, a white woman stopped by and asked him, “Would you like another job?”, obviously mistaking him for a paid gardener of the family she assumed lived in the house. Farred sarcastically responded: “Only if you can match my Cornell faculty salary.” In order to understand what happened, Farred turned to Heidegger: “Heidegger saved me because he gave me the language to write about race in such a way as I’d never written it before. Heidegger enabled me to write in this way because he has made me think about how to think.”

What he found so useful in Heidegger was the notion of language as a “house of being” – not the abstract-universal language of science and state administration, but language rooted in a particular way of life, language as the medium of an always-unique life experience that discloses reality to us in a historically specific way. It is easy to imagine how such a stance enables a subject to resist being swallowed into a global universe of technological domination. However, is this the way to fight what is often called the “Americanization” of our lives? To answer this question, we have to think – and, as Farred repeatedly points out, this is what he learnt from Heidegger – not just to think but to think about thinking.

To make it clear, I am not a Heideggerian. But what I do know is that we live in a unique moment that gives rise to the urgency to think. It is not a peaceful time that provides the opportunity to comfortably withdraw into reflection on the world, but a time when our survival as humans is under threat from different directions: the prospect of total digital control that plans to invade our mind itself (“wired brain”), uncontrollable viral infections, the effects of global warming. We are all affected by these threats – and so-called ‘ordinary people’ even more than others.

Slavoj Žižek, https://www.rt.com/op-ed/542968-western-freedom-is-a-lie/


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  • Fredrick George Welfare
    Zizek says, "most dangerous unfreedom is the unfreedom that we experience as freedom." How is this possible?
    This polarity is not responsible thinking.
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    • 8 h
    • Brutus Jolansson
      It's more dangerous precisely because, since it's experienced as freedom, we can't become aware of it as unfreedom, hence we cannot conceive of ourselves as requiring (actual) freedom.
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      • 4 h
      • Fredrick George Welfare
        Brutus Jolansson There are degrees of delusion, illusion, false consciousness, ignorance, etc. I object to an unnuanced polarity, an either-or, Zizek knows better. Quips like this make it easy for pigeonholers.
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        • 1 h
      • Svetoslav Nenov
        Fredrick George Welfare you completely misunderstand the quote and act like everyone else misunderstands it. Tf are you doing in this group.
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        • 20 m
    • Louis Sullivan
      Fredrick we experience it as what we think is freedom but it isn’t, like buying a new Gucci bag etc.
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      • 4 h
    • Steve Brown
      He's refering to us feeling free ('freedom from - I suppose in the JS Mill sense) free to do and be what we like when, say, we roam the internet. But of course, our every key stroke is monitored and analysed by the dozens of tracking devices that watch over our internet use. Similarly, our movements in the wider world are surveilled in the same way. For me, it also means that (tho Zizek is not a determinist) that all our actions are in fact the products of cause and effect and thus we flounder and thrash around on the planet under the sad illusion of being free.
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      • 2 h
      • Edited
      • Fredrick George Welfare
        Steve Brown Freedom does not obviate responsibility.
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        • 1 h
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      • Steve Brown
        Someone lies seriously injured on the floor - a determinist would say 'Dial for an ambulance one will arrive in ten minutes or so (!)' a fatalist would say 'Don't bother, they'll die anyway'....free will does not directly imply responsibilty....whatever that clunking word means
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Richard Polt provides a lively and accessible introduction to one of the most influential and intellectually demanding philosophers of the modern era. Covering the entire range of Heidegger's thought, Polt skillfully communicates the essence of the philosopher, enabling readers, especially those new to his writings, to approach his works with confidence and insight. Polt presents the questions Heidegger grappled with and the positions he adopted, and also analyzes persistent points of difference between competing schools of interpretation. The book begins by exploring Heidegger's central concern, the question of Being, and his way of doing philosophy. After considering his environment, personality, and early thought, it carefully takes readers through his best-known work, Being and Time. Heidegger concludes with highlights of its subject's later thought, providing guidelines for understanding Contributions to Philosophy and other important texts. It gives special attention to the philosopher's political involvement with the Nazis in the 1930s, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the reactions to his politics, reactions ranging from exculpation to complete condemnation.


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""Provides interesting details on Heidegger's biography and political life and surveys some of the philosopher's later writings.""—Publishers Weekly

""Polt has written a valuable introduction for beginners to Heidegger. . . Polt encourages the reader to try Heidegger's ideas on for size, and to judge them accordingly. Heidegger's philosophy comes to life in this little book. Highly recommended for all levels.""—Choice

""Polt negotiates the difficult path between introduction and over-simplification skilfully. Heidegger: An Introduction succeeds in making the philosopher's thought accessible without rendering it simplistic.""—Neil Levy, Philosophy in Review. February-December, 1999.

""This book is without a doubt the best general introduction to Heidegger ever written. Richard Polt has an uncanny ability to present Heidegger's central ideas in a straightforward way without sacrificing any of their richness or novelty. With his exceptional mastery of German, his concise formulations, and his sensitive, almost poetic style, Polt brings the philosopher's work to life. An incomparable achievement.""—Charles Guignon, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger
About the Author
Richard Polt is Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University, Cincinnati. He is the author of Heidegger: An Introduction and The Emergency of Being, both from Cornell.


Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cornell University Press; 1st edition (15 January 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 216 pages



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Eric Stuart Longley
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant expositionReviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2006
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A marellous read, Polt explains Heidegger as best as anyone can explain this monstrous genius. Polt is not afraid to point out problems and issues that remain unresolved. As an introduction to Heidegger this book is unsurpassed, clear examples, careful explanation of Heideggers terms and references, detailed explanations of Heideggers methods along with clear written sytle make this book a real treasure - thats not to say it is not hard (not as hard as reading Heidegger unaided) but it is well worth the effort. Polt is a rarity in academe someone who can explain without ending up as convoluted or esoteric as the work he is explaining. Would recommend this book to anyone starting off who is interested in Heidegger.

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Dalakouras
5.0 out of 5 stars Search no further.Reviewed in Germany on 25 January 2016
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By far, the best and most balanced of all Heidegger introductions. Essential reading that will reveal new dimensions in the thought of this important thinker.
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Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 May 2016
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Good book. Thank you
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R. Bowman
5.0 out of 5 stars Very HelpfulReviewed in the United States on 31 August 2019
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I have struggled with Heidegger for years but this book was very useful to bring forth some of Heidegger's more obscure usages. I have at times thought the translations might be lacking. I also bought 'Introduction to Metaphysics' in Polt's translation and whether it is the translation or the introduction it is easier going. That's not to say Heidegger is ever going to be easy. He commands you to think the thought which is quite a bit different than reading many philosophers' thoughts. In many ways Heidegger is like some of the Buddhists trying to talk about those things that transcend talking. At least Polt clarifies the nuances Heidegger was trying to convey in German that do not always make it to English.

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Aaron Lybrook
5.0 out of 5 stars "Heidegger: an Introduction" by Richard PoltReviewed in the United States on 1 March 2019
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This is a MUST for anyone learning to read Heidegger for the first time. What I like most about the book, besides its clarity, is that it can be read without reading "Being and Time" first. Though Professor Polt acknowledged that he wrote the book as a guide for those reading through "Being and Time," the book can be read prior OR alongside Heidegger. I truly look forward to Professor Polt's other book, "The Emergency of Being."

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Heidegger: an introduction
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 3.86  ·   Rating details ·  201 ratings  ·  24 reviews
Richard Polt provides a lively and accessible introduction to one of the most influential and intellectually demanding philosophers of the modern era. Covering the entire range of Heidegger's thought, Polt skillfully communicates the essence of the philosopher, enabling readers, especially those new to his writings, to approach his works with confidence and insight. Polt presents the questions Heidegger grappled with and the positions he adopted, and also analyzes persistent points of difference between competing schools of interpretation. The book begins by exploring Heidegger's central concern, the question of Being, and his way of doing philosophy. After considering his environment, personality, and early thought, it carefully takes readers through his best-known work, Being and Time. Heidegger concludes with highlights of its subject's later thought, providing guidelines for understanding Contributions to Philosophy and other important texts. It gives special attention to the philosopher's political involvement with the Nazis in the 1930s, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the reactions to his politics, reactions ranging from exculpation to complete condemnation. (less)
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Published December 19th 1997 by Cornell University Press
Original TitleHeidegger: An Introduction
ISBN0801485649  (ISBN13: 9780801485640)
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 Average rating3.86  ·  Rating details ·  201 ratings  ·  24 reviews

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Alex
Nov 12, 2015Alex rated it it was ok
Good overview on Heidegger's thinking but Polt's comments and later analyses are both short sighted and seem to entirely miss the point. He offers no real arguments to support his own thinking and the commentary comes off as useless and kind of bothersome. (less)
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Arjun Ravichandran
Aug 20, 2013Arjun Ravichandran rated it it was amazing
Great introduction to this crucial thinker, and quite possibly the only good introduction to Heidegger for the uninitiated. The author does a great job of explaining Heidegger's relevance in the general philosophical tradition (i.e. his attack on Cartesian metaphysics) but at the same time, he also explores the deeply relevant and vital issues that made him the most important philosopher of the 20th century ; questions of authenticity, of man's relationship to time and death, of our relationship to others. All of these questions are looked at in a completely new way by Heidegger, which makes a precursor to the existentialists who would later appropriate and adopt his ideas.
Heidegger can be thought of as a cross between Nietzsche and Aristotle ; he takes from the latter a careful and detailed philosophical construction, and from the former, a deeply-held concern for the future of a humanity struggling in a nihilistic epoch. To engage with Heidegger, the interested party would have to go through his magnum opus, Being and Time, but this is well nigh impossible for Heidegger expects familiarity not only with most of the Western Canon but also with his predecessors in the phenomenological tradition. This book makes Heidegger's thought accessible to the general reader, but even then, one must have at least a basic idea of what Kant had to say about Being, and what are the general aims and notions of phenomenology. This can be accomplished by a quick search through Wikipedia, and would be great for helping one to get through this book.
I can't recommend this book enough ; a lucid, and thoroughly engaging introduction to one of the darkest and most unsettling thinkers in philosophy. It's the kind of book that changes your life. (less)
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Richard Newton
Jun 02, 2016Richard Newton rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: philosophy, memoir-or-biography
Before anyone gets heated - my review rating refers to my view on this book, not to Heidegger or his philosophy. I say this because Heidegger certainly seems to bring out strong views. Some see him as one of the most brilliant philiosophers of all time. Others as sham philosopher who wrote cryptically to cover vacuous nonsense, and on top of that a Nazi! In the middle sit a lot of people who don't care and cannot be bothered to make the effort to read Heidegger. It's hard to think of another philosopher who brings out quite such a difference in views.

Before reading this book, apart from some very very high level outlines, I knew little or nothing about him. Most of my philosophy training was in classic analytical philosophy, which tends to scorn Heidegger.

The bulk of this book is about Heidegger's first book: Being and Time. It comments briefly on his earlier writing and has some biographical information as well. It is not the easiest of reads, but it is not hard either. If you are used to reading philosophy texts then you should not struggle too much.

Do I now think I understand Heidegger? No. But then my feeling is that understanding Heidegger requires a long period of serious study. However, the book has given me at least a sense of what he was interested in, some of his ideas, and a flavour for his writing. I'm not sure my life is going to be long enough or ever dull enough to read much more Heidegger, but at least I now have that sense. Given the complexity of Heidegger, his play with language and tendency to make up terminology which is hard to translate, that alone is a pretty good achievement in one book of 180 pages. (less)
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Xander
Jul 14, 2019Xander rated it liked it
Excellent introduction to the life and thoughts of Martin Heidegger. I am not familiar with the genre of introductory works, and in particular I'm unaware of any alternative intro's to Heidegger - but I can't imagine any alternative to be as lucid, concise and insightful as this book.

Polt explains the early life of Heidegger and uses half of the book to take the reader on a tour through Sein und Zeit (1927) - Heidegger's impenetrable magnum opus. One of the strengths of this introduction is the clear exposition of Heidegger's ideas - Polt only occassionaly offers his own interpretations (and clearly mentions them as such) and even more rarely offers his opinion on themes. The last third of the book explains how Heidegger, after being inaugurated in 1929, got tangled up with Nazism, and how his philosophical thoughts changed dramatically in the 1930's.

Heidegger went from setting out to answer the question of Being as a means to offer humanity a new, goal - an existential meaning - to abandoning this attempt altogether and claiming that the question of Being is unanswerable and that its meaning is "to be able to wait, a whole life long."

'Metafysican-turned-mystic' sums it up neatly.

Anyway, I can definitely recommend Polt's book to anyone trying to wrap his/her head around Heidegger's obscure and eccentric philosophy! (less)
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Michael A.
Apr 15, 2020Michael A. rated it really liked it
Intelligible introduction to Heigedder - got me eager to go straight to the source.
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Justin Evans
May 18, 2010Justin Evans rated it really liked it
Shelves: philosophy
There's plenty to dislike about Heidegger - the nazism, the self-mythologization, the rather too frequent dips into nonsense - but I most dislike the insufferable literary habits of his epigoni. Thankfully Mr Polt writes clearly if not beautifully.
Although he has a penchant for the hackneyed or tasteless which I've come to expect from Heideggerians (e.g., Heidegger's writing can be beautiful, Polt says, and gives as his example: "the clearing center itself encircles all that is, as does the nothing, which we scarcely know." Indeed. Or the original idea that we shouldn't speak well by 'policing our words,' but by "learning to respect the mysterious powers of language." That seems to me, well, a little bit like Metaphysics, treating humans as objects; in this case objects which are affected by the Great God of Language.), it never gets in the way of the point, which he makes seem important. I think maybe I *should* try to be open to Being a bit more often.
That Polt structures the book more as a commentary and less as a monograph is the major downside here; the good news, of course, is that it is very helpful as a guide to Heidegger's own writing. (less)
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Taka
Nov 25, 2017Taka rated it really liked it
Shelves: 2017, existentialism
Slightly trivializing and repetitive, but definitely user-friendly and makes Heidegger easier (but not easy) to understand. Recommended especially for beginners.

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