Cooper observes that Heidegger’s reconstructionrnof phenomenology into anrnexistential ontology both prefigured andrnstrengthened his turning toward the radicalrnright. A critic of rationalism and individualism,rnHeidegger gravitated towardrnmovements stressing both culturalrnrootedness and an aversion to modernity.rnHis German Catholic and at least derivativelyrnpeasant background nurtured thisrnantimodernism, although Cooper properlyrnwarns against the facile connectionrnmade by one Heidegger debunker, VictorrnFarias, between the philosopher’srnSwabian Catholic upbringing and his laterrnsupport for Hitler.rnOn the whole, Cooper deals fairlyrnwith Heidegger’s early enthusiasm forrnHitler. Cooper cites philosophical andrnmoral positions that might have madernHeidegger receptive to the new Germanrnregime, such as his known hatred forrnmodern technology combined with thernnaive belief that Nazism was about a returnrnto premodern peasant life. ButrnCooper also underlines two points that,rnin my opinion, need to be stressed in discussionsrnof this kind: that neither Heidegger’srntraditionalism nor his ontologicalrnrestatement of phenomenology has arnnecessary connection to Nazism, andrnthat most of his hobnobbing with thernNazis resulted from professional ambitions.rnHeidegger later inveighed against nuclearrnwarfare and ecological contamination,rnbut this should not be seen as arnmere extension of his existential thoughtrnproceeding from the 20’s. Throughoutrnhis life Heidegger had a marvelous facilityrnto adapt what Jiirgen Habermas callsrn”the vocabulary of authenticity” to politicalrnopportunities. After the collapse ofrnNazism he sought rehabilitation throughrna kind of alliance with the anti-AmericanrnEuropean left. By the 50’s, Les TempsrnModernes and other European leftistrnmagazines were publishing Heidegger onrnthe dangers of nuclear war and Americanrncultural and economic imperialism.rnNeedless to say, the left’s love affair withrnHeidegger was doomed despite the bestrnefforts to keep it alive by Jean-Paul Sartrernand, more recently, Richard Rorty.rnThough Heidegger turned furiouslyrnagainst American commerce and nuclearrnarsenals, his philosophy was, as Cooperrndescribes it, a profoundly antimodernistrnone.rnThis leads to a final point that Cooperrndoes not address. Given the material herndoes cover in his short study, it might bernasking too much that he deal with thisrntoo. But in a series devoted to conservativernthinkers (as this one, “Thinkers ofrnOur Time,” is), it would be reasonable tornask: What influence does or should Heideggerrnhave on the current intellectualrnright? Undoubtedly he has had a certainrnimpact, if we limit our observationsrnto the European postmodern right.rnAmong those who, like the French andrnItalian New Right, challenge the conceptrnof human rights and emphasize culturalrnparticularities, Heidegger’s critique ofrnmodernity and existential defense ofrnrootedness have a place of honor. But onrnthis side of the Atlantic, Heideggerianrnthinking has even less currency on thernright than on the left Both neoconscrvativesrnand the Christian—particularlyrnthe Catholic—right hate Heidegger, onerngroup condemning him as a Germanrnrightist who attacked the Enlightenmentrnand the other decrying him as an “atheist”rnand historicist. And the Americanrnright, from neoconservative Allan Bloomrnto Catholic traditionalists Thomas Molnarrnand Gerhart Niemeyer, view Heideggerrnas a particularly influential andrnsinister figure, one whose legion of disciplesrnmust be daily combated.rnIn my view, Heidegger does have valuernas a social critic and philosopher, but it isrnnecessary to contextualize his thoughtrnwhile attempting to apply it. One simplyrncannot accept the grandiose claims thatrnHeidegger makes for himself, or his extravagantrndemand that we treat the Socraticrnturn in Western thought as a costlyrnderailment. Heidegger’s value shouldrnbe seen in his critical relation to the Enlightenmentrnand rationalism and in hisrnelaboration of the intuitions of earlierrnphilosophers, particularly Schelling,rnNietzsche, and Husserl. His own insistencernon the situatedness of thinkingrnmust be applied to him as well. Heideggerrnwas not a pre-Socratic Greekrnreturned as a Swabian peasant, but arnpostromantic romantic, resurrecting andrnrefining 19th- and early 20th-centuryrnEuropean thought.rnPostmodern traditionalists who invokernHeidegger against technicism and managerialrnideologies should be honestrnabout their own project. They have notrnreally set out to extirpate the Enlightenmentrnroot and branch or to returnrnphilosophy to 13th-century Paris or tornfifth-century B.C. Athens. They have incorporatedrnHeidegger’s thought selectivelyrnin constructing a particular critique.rnAnd there is good reason that thisrnincorporation be selective. One shouldrnnot have to swallow all of Heidegger’srnideas, expressed over a 40-year period, tornrecognize the merits of some of them. Irnmyself find much to learn from Heidegger’srninterwar philosophizing but lessrnfrom his postwar work, much of whichrnseems full of posturing and deliberaternobscurity. Rather than slavish devotees,rnthe corpus of his work should elicit qualifiedrnadmiration, and while we can profitrnfrom his criticism of rationalists, thisrnshould not obscure the fact that we andrnHeidegger have been influenced by thernAge of Reason and by older traditions ofrnreasoned discourse. We do not have tornreject all of the thinking of Hume, Kant,rnand Hobbes, or Plato and Aristotle, tornappreciate Heidegger’s critical stance towardrnliberalism and “erroneous subjectivizing.”rnCooper believes that Heideggerrndemands from us this either/orrnchoice, which is one that Victor Farias,rnAllan Bloom, and other anti-Heideggeriansrnalso wish to have us make. Nonetheless,rnit is not one that is necessary in orderrnto extract what is useful andrnperceptive in Heidegger.rnPaul Gottfried is a professor of humanitiesrnat Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.rnAt Home inrnthe Worldrnby Gregory McNameernA Place in Space: Ethics,rnAesthetics, and Watershedsrnby Gary SnyderrnWashington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press;rn272 pp., $15.00rnMountains and Rivers Without Endrnby Gary SnyderrnWashington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press;rn176 pp., $20.00rnGary Snyder’s new books A Place inrnSpace, a collection of essays andrntalks, and Mountains and Rivers WithoutrnEnd, a cycle of poems, are of a piece.rnBoth summarize more than 40 years ofrnwriting on literary, environmental, andrn36/CHRONICLESrnrnrn