What does Walter Kaufmann’s Heidegger critique have to offer the 21st century?

Heidegger has many critics, but not all critics are alike. This paper analyses the work of one of the more forceful and provocative of Heidegger’s detractors, Walter Kaufmann (1921–1980). The paper argues that Kaufmann’s criticisms of Heidegger deserve analysis in their own right. To make this case it unpacks Kaufmann’s biographical and scholarly involvement with Heidegger, explaining how Kaufmann (a refugee from Germany) was instrumental in bringing Heidegger to the attention of the American academic public. At the same time, the paper argues that Kaufmann’s intense opposition to Heidegger’s thought comes from his equally strong engagement with issues that preoccupied Heidegger as well. Specifically, Kaufmann’s own search to find a more honest and meaningful way to speaking about existential questions caused him to recoil from what he saw as Heidegger’s efforts to deflect, rather than spark, thought and engagement. The logic of Kaufman’s argument, as well as the implications of his criticisms of Heidegger are explored in the essay.