A people imagined as one collective and bearer of a historical destiny; the sense in which Heidegger's 1933 address uses it.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
The Rectoral Address identifies the university's will to science with the Volk's will to its historic, spiritual mission: "science and German fate must come to power at the same time."
Put simply Heidegger's inaugural speech as university rector ties the university's pursuit of knowledge to the German people's historic, spiritual mission: "science and German fate must come to power at the same time."
For the Rectoral Address, a Volk's spiritual world is a power, one drawn from guarding at the deepest level the forces rooted in its "soil and blood."
Put simply Heidegger's rector's speech: a people's spiritual world is a power. It comes from guarding, at the deepest level, the forces rooted in that people's "soil and blood."
What strikes Shore in the Rectoral Address passages she reads is an absence: nothing about Jews, antisemitism or extermination, but a great deal about will and the German Volk.
Put simply Shore: what strikes her in the passages she reads from Heidegger's rector's speech is what is missing. Nothing about Jews, antisemitism or extermination, but a great deal about will and the German people.
Links from these claims to others in the course. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
HeideggerThe Rectoral Address identifies the university's will to science with the Volk's will to its historic, spiritual mission: "science and German fate must come to power at the same time." L24 · 21:48
MarcuseIn 1947 Marcuse told Heidegger he passed, for many, as a leading Nazi intellectual: he had bound himself to the regime in 1933 and never publicly recanted, even after 1945. L24 · 42:53
Marcuse cites Heidegger's own 1933 speeches as proof of identification with the regime; the Rectoral Address is the speech Shore has just read (Marcuse does not name it in Shore's excerpt).Our inference
HerderHumans are social beings with a deep longing for home. Belonging to a unique, rooted community answers it and overcomes alienation. Herder hated cosmopolitanism. L3 · 42:35
HeideggerFor the Rectoral Address, a Volk's spiritual world is a power, one drawn from guarding at the deepest level the forces rooted in its "soil and blood." L24 · 23:04
Heidegger redeploys Romantic rooted belonging as a Nazi Volk spirit of soil and blood.Our inference