I welcome private and public nominations for my weekly, most-underrated philosopher of the week post! Here are the rules: 1. no dead people; 2. no people currently or about to be employed in a Leiter top 50 (or equivalent) department (even thought these are also filled with underrated folk); 3. no former dissertation advisors, or other teachers from graduate school; 4. no former students; 5. No untenured folk. 6a: Excellence in more than one AOS, or 6b: noticeable public impact. (That is I want to recognize interesting philosophers, not just hyperspecialized ones!)
This week's most underrated, Richard Polt (Xavier University in Cincinnati), is probably the first destination for folk that want to figure out what the fuss is about with Heidegger, but find Heidegger's German (or in translation) too forbidding. After I read Polt's Heidegger: An Introduction as an advanced graduate student, I recall thinking that I had wished I had read it as an undergrad. I found his a clear and encouraging guide. Polt's acclaimed translations of Heidegger, Nietzsche, Baumgartner (and a few otehrs) are his service to the profession.
Much of Polt's scholarly output is related to work on Heidegger. That alone means one has to have a very sound grasp of much of the history of philosophy (if only not to be misled by Heidegger's often self-serving rhetoric). For example, Polt has written subtly on Aristotelian motion.
Of course, there has been much polemic on Heidegger's Nazism. Even so, few have had the courage to explore the episode in order to shed light on the nature and dangers of political philosophy. Polt's piece on the topic is a very fine exception: Polt is unflinching, and via Arendt returns us to Aristotle's enduring wisdom. One senses that Polt is a genuine critical friend of Liberal Democracy--he won't sign up for its self-serving myths, and wishes more from it. But he does not succumb to the fantasies of its enemies either...
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