Review of Janicaud's Heidegger in France

“This book is an unusual intellectual history of a period and tradition still in flux, still unfolding and unfinished. It is sweeping in scope (covering over seventy years of Heidegger’s widespread influence in French intellectual life) and equally wide ranging in its style: one finds theoretical discussions and academic debates discussed with insight and precision, and yet this book is full of anecdotes, as well as personal recollections (in the form of seven “Epilogues” appearing at various points). It tells the story of how Heidegger’s thought entered, and often defined, some of the liveliest debates of French intellectual life in the 20th century.”

“Dominique Janicaud (1937-2002) was well placed to tell this story. A relative of Jean Beaufret (who was the recipient of Heidegger’s “Letter on Humanism” and a key figure in the French reception of Heidegger), Janicaud was himself a significant voice in these debates: his previous major work, La Puissance du rationnel (1985), pressed Heidegger’s thought on technology and science in new directions. A generous and careful person, Janicaud’s efforts to tell the story of Heidegger’s legacy in France bear the hallmarks of his person: they are balanced, nuanced, thoughtful, and directed at understanding more than passing judgment.”

“The second part of the English translation contains seven (the French edition has eighteen) interviews from those Janicaud calls as “witnesses” to the real impact of Heidegger in France. These interviews, although brief, are often illuminating. The remarks by Derrida, Marion, Nancy, and Lacoue-Labarthe are especially interesting (see, for instance, Derrida saying that Heidegger “haunts me like a sort of strict father”).”

“Taken together with the translators’ introduction and the often quite substantive footnotes, Heidegger in France is a remarkable achievement and an intellectual history of the first-order.”

“Janicaud calls attention to two rather odd delays that punctuate this story of Heidegger in France. First, that Heidegger did not go to France until 1955, when he was 65 years old. Given that one can easily ride a bicycle from Freiburg to France, this is quite astonishing. That first trip, which included some time in Paris at the flat of Beaufret and a stay at Lacan’s home in Guitrancourt, culminated in Heidegger’s attendance at a conference at Cerisy where he delivered the lecture “What is Philosophy?”. Janicaud’s account of this trip and conference is among the most interesting stories told. One reads, for instance, of Heidegger’s meetings with René Char, when they discussed their mutual admiration for Melville; one also finds Heidegger walking with Georges Braque, and on a harrowing drive with Lacan. There are accounts of Heidegger’s exchanges with Ricœur and Marcel, and one learns as well of Heidegger’s refusal (or perhaps inability) to speak French. The second odd late arrival in this story is a French translation of Sein und Zeit. Janicaud begins Chapter 9 by noting that until 1985, only the first forty-four paragraphs (i.e. only Division One) were published in French (and that was in 1964). Then, in 1985 and 1986, two rival translations were published (one by the prestigious publishing house Gallimard, the other a “pirate” publication).”

“Long before Heidegger would set foot in France or Sein und Zeit (and other of his texts) were translated into French, Heidegger had been a serious fascination for French intellectuals.”

“What this makes clear is how much the reception of Heidegger in France was funneled through a relatively small number of texts and an equally small number of those who were able to engage Heidegger in German.”

“Furthermore, as Janicaud notes, “it is clear that the ‘reception’ [of Heidegger] would have been infinitely less influential if it had not been sustained and stimulated by the brightest minds, from Koyré to Levinas, from Beaufret to Birault, and from Merleau-Ponty to Derrida” (p. 302).”

“The reception of Heidegger in France was never “docile” or a matter of “repetitive imitations,” but was invariably “inventive,” “complex,” often “brilliant,” and frequently “noisy.””

“Precisely for these reasons, and precisely because “Heidegger” as a set of ideas and a challenge to orthodoxies was not simply a presence in academic circles, the role of Heidegger in France is widespread and it is clear that his footprints will continue to be found there for many years to come.”

“From the first mentions of the name “Heidegger” in the 1920s (by Gurvitch and Brunschvicg) and the first real encounters with Heidegger the man in Davos, Switzerland where Levinas and Gandillac would participate in the philosophical gatherings there, to the “Sartre bomb” of Being and Nothingness in 1943, and up to the present figures of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, and Nancy, this book makes clear that Heidegger has been a “omnipresent” and “diversified” force in French intellectual life.”

“Translated into English by Peg Birmingham and Elizabeth Birmingham as Powers of the Rational: Science, Technology, and the Future of Thought, Indiana University Press, 1995.”

“Here one could point to Arendt’s essay on the occasion of Heidegger’s 80th birthday, “Martin Heidegger at Eighty, New York Review of Books, October 21, 1971, Gadamer’s Heidegger’s Ways (SUNY Press, 1994), and Löwith’s Mein Leben in Deutschland vor und nach 1933 (Metzler, 2007).”

“Adorno, Jargon der Eigenlichkeit (Suhrkamp, 1964) and Habermas “Mit Heidegger gegen Heidegger denken” (1953).”

“The cover of the English translation has a photo from this visit that shows Heidegger with Kostas Axelos, Jacques Lacan, Jean Beaufret, Elfriede Heidegger, and Sylvia Bataille.”

“Janicaud sheds light on the contemporary French philosophical scene and he has done this from an angle seldom seen by others. It is a lively story and reminds us that the life of ideas, the destiny of a thought, is an exciting matter.”