This volume of Martin Heidegger's Black Notebooks contains five short notebooks the philosopher composed during the pivotal years of 1942 to 1948. The notebooks constitute a form of intellectual diary with highly personal reflections on the fall of National Socialism, the occupation of Germany after WWII, and Heidegger's own philosophical legacy. They also contain Heidegger's embittered reflections on his own denazification process. In multiple passages throughout the years, Heidegger also reflects on his political activities as Rector of Freiburg University in the early phase of National Socialism.
Overall, this volume constitutes Heidegger's most intensely personal and autobiographical text. Moreover, the volume documents critical philosophical moments in the pivot from Heidegger's earlier to his later mode of philosophy. Readers interested in the development of Heidegger's thinking will find essential documentation for the emergence of Heidegger's post-WWII philosophical work. Readers interested in the history of intellectuals under National Socialism will find essential personal insights from the hand of an important academic who aligned himself with National Socialism and later bitterly decried the authorities in charge of his denazification.