Heidegger and German Platonism : The Shadows of Marburg

Examining Heidegger's thought in relation to Platonism, this book opens a dialogue between Heidegger and German Platonism that illuminates issues around aesthetics, ethics, political philosophy, and ontology. It will be of interest to scholars of ancient and European philosophy, classicists, intellectual historians, and political theorists.

Heidegger criticized Plato, alleging that all metaphysics is Platonism and that metaphysics is a misunderstanding and falsification of the question of Being. Is it possible to defend Platonism against this Heideggerian accusation? Three thinkers among Heidegger's first generation of students answered this question affirmatively, and appropriated Platonic philosophy in order to respond to Heidegger's critique and to criticize his thought more broadly. Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire examines the Platonic critiques of Heidegger found in the works of Leo Strauss, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Gerhard Krüger in the context from which they emerged, namely the intellectual constellation of Marburg as shaped by Marburg neo-Kantian Platonism and the philological innovations of Paul Friedländer. His rich study illuminates neglected aspects of the reception of Plato in the German tradition, and presents a new narrative of developments in post-Heideggerian thought.