He who
thinks great thoughts often makes great errors.
~ Heidegger
Reading and
accepting even the most malicious forms of writing hold a high value in liberal
democracies. A progressive society gains from provocative ideas that its
members are exposed to in multiple ways. John Stuart Mill, one of the most influential
thinkers and philosophers in the nineteenth century best articulated these
liberal values in his celebrated work On
Liberty (1859), in which he discussed the relationship between liberty and
authority, and asserts that being open to ideas that are disturbing and
challenging can be constructive.
But how should
we read and decipher writers and philosophers whose work has often been associated
with totalitarianism?
For many
critics, philosophies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as well as Karl Marx carried
destructive influence, and were dangerous and proto-totalitarian. Nietzsche
disliked social and moral conventions as he argues they smother individuals. A
recluse and an iconoclast, he ‘philosophised with a hammer’, in his own words,
and was justly or unjustly accused of being fascist or racist (this remains a controversial issue).
In philosophers’ circles of the twentieth century, he was a black sheep,
regarded as Nazism’s official philosopher. Heidegger, one of the greatest philosophers
known for his immense contribution to existentialism and phenomenology, was actually a member of Nazi party.
Anti-democratic
thinkers have inspired American and European conservative and radical elites
since French Revolution, but they also share with us indispensable truths about
the society we live in that can propel us to think in a deeper manner about our
own adamantly held beliefs and viewpoints.
Rousseau expounded
on how the thoughtless pursuit of self-interest can lead to a deep sense of
inauthenticity. Marx’s thoughts about capitalism - how it is a radical mode of
production, and has ability to turn upside down traditional societies and their
values - was a dazzling insight. Nietzsche’s genealogical insight into the
history of moral truths was ground-breaking. Heidegger’s works and writings
remain notoriously difficult, but they incite gaping reflection on various
rationalistic dogmas that are ubiquitous today (he criticised Western
philosophy, and even spoke of nihilistic values of modern technological culture).
We have not so much to fear from these philosophers than we do from those determined to construe them in a malevolent manner. We should not moralise about dangerous writers and philosophers, and straightaway condemn those who seek something of value in their work. Exposing ourselves to different ideas and philosophies - ‘the marketplace of ideas’, as Mill says - helps us cultivate a better understand of our society and the world as a whole.
