Jean Beaufret

Jean Beaufret ( born May 2, 1907 in Mars at Auzances in the Creuse; † August 7, 1982 in Paris ) is a French philosopher and German studies, resistance fighters was during the German occupation. He was strongly influenced by Martin Heidegger.

His early interests include the philosopher Hegel, Fichte and Karl Marx. Since the time before the Second World War he maintained friendships with Paul Éluard, Maurice Merleau -Ponty, André Breton and Paul Valéry.

Correspondence with Heidegger - Letter on Humanism

After Heidegger 1946, through his involvement during the Nazi ban on teaching and his reputation was damaged by the public, both came into contact with each other. In the course of a slow resumption of reception of Heidegger in France, which is the country that put then in Freiburg, the occupying power, Beaufret Heidegger wrote a letter in which he asks the question: "How can the word humanism are given a new meaning? " Inquired addition he is the humanism of the relation between Heidegger's philosophy. This follows an essay by Jean-Paul Sartre with the programmatic title " L' existentialisme est un humanisme ".

Heidegger replied Beaufret with a letter, which (in short: Letter on Humanism ) as the letter about the "humanism" was known.

Friendship with Heidegger

In 1947 Beaufret his students, among whom Jean- François Lyotard was on a visit with Heidegger in Todtnauberg, followed by a long Franco-German academic exchange in Freiburg.

Beaufret and Heidegger talked for a long intensive contact. Through him, Heidegger was also draw attention to the work of Jacques Derrida. Since then Beaufret applicable in France as the most famous "orthodox" Heideggerians.

Relation to Faurisson

In 1987, the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, " Annales d' histoire révisionniste " published in the journal a letter from Jean Beaufret, in which he allegedly assured him his consent to his theses. The student Beaufret François Fedier defended him in a letter to the historian of science and Heidegger biographer Hugo Ott.