ABSTRACT
Ricoeur claimed, "Philosophical pleading for subjectivity"—that is, phenomenology—"is becoming the citizen's only recourse against the tyrant". Heidegger carries out his phenomenological investigation of the meaning of Being in conjunction with a "destruction" of traditional ontological concepts in which Being is regarded as some sort of metaphysical entity. A debate has been taking place among members of the Heidegger Circle as to whether the later Heidegger remained dedicated to phenomenological inquiry or turned instead to a form of metaphysical realism. Typically, tyranny is supported by some form of totalitarian ideology, and totalitarian ideology, in turn, is ordinarily rooted in a framework of metaphysical illusion or what is oxymoronically characterized as metaphysical realism. There is one context in which Heidegger's pivot toward metaphysical realism is undeniable—namely, his embrace of Nazi ideology. Heidegger's version of Nazism reflected his own dream of Being, whereby he seemed to experience the Nazi takeover of Germany as an upsurge of Being itself, bursting forth in historical reality.
