Is Heidegger a Kantian? A Dialogue with Vinicius de Figueiredo

Abstract

The article takes as its starting point the dialogue with Vinicius de Figueiredo concerning my book Nietzsche, perspectivism and democracy, in which I propose a Kantian reading of Nietzsche’s perspectivism. After reviewing the main lines of my argument, both in the book and in the article where I responded to Figueiredo’s objections, I seek to show that, contrary to what I stated at the time, Heidegger’s philosophy in Being and time can also be read in the same vein. To this end, I turn to §23 of Heidegger’s book, where he engages with Kant’s essay What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking? on the possible “subjectivity” of space. Although “being-in-the-world,” like Nietzsche’s “will to power,” represents an attempt to overcome the Kantian opposition between “subject” and “object,” both retain a certain residue of “subjectivity” — which, I argue, safeguards the simultaneously metaphysical and anti-dogmatic vocation of philosophy.