… the question is about who has the right to pursue philosophy, to call herself or himself a philosopher, and to deny this appellation to others. In his book, “Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy,” when referring to Heidegger, Faye often renders the word philosopher in quotation marks. The current fight for the possibility of reading certain philosophical works is, therefore, a fight over the very meaning of philosophy, with or without quotation marks.
A Fight for the Right to Read Heidegger
by Michael Marder
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/a-fight-for-the-right-to-read-heidegger/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=opinion&_r=0
This spring, the Students’ Union at the University College London banned meetings of a group called the Nietzsche Club, which was formed to discuss the ideas of philosophers who inspired, among others, far-right politicians and leaders of the past, like Benito Mussolini, an admirer of Nietzsche’s work. The Union Council decided that the discussion of such thinkers and ideas would foster a dangerous wave of fascism among its students, and prevented them from holding a public meeting.
To those of us in philosophy concerned with ideological censorship, this incident seems like the tip of the iceberg in an impending struggle over the prospects of a serious scholarly engagement with some of the most important philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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There is a profound disconnect between Heidegger’s anti-Semitic prejudice and his philosophy.