This book is an important and timely contribution to the debateconcerning the relation between Heidegger's philosophy and hispolitical affiliations to Nazism. But it is more than that: it isalso a study, by the leading sociologist in France today, of someof the institutional mechanisms involved in the production ofphilosophical discourse. Drawing on his distinctive methods of analysis, Bourdieu arguesthat philosophical discourse - like all discourse - is the resultof an interaction between an expressive drive and the censorshipgenerated by the social field in which it is produced. Hence, tounderstand Heidegger's work, it is necessary to reconstruct thelogic of the philosophical field in early twentieth-century Germanyand its relation to the broader social and political fields of theWeimar Republic. In this way Bourdieu is able to shed fresh lighton Heidegger's philosophical language and orientation, whilesteering clear of the partisan judgements adopted by those criticswho charge him with an apologetics for Nazism or those who seek toredeem him at any cost. The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger will be ofinterest to students and scholars in philosophy, literature, andsocial and political theory, as well as to anyone interested in thecontroversy surrounding Heidegger and his links with Nazism.