In his Four Seminars, Heidegger criticizes Marx’s early propositions severely from the thought of Being. According to his opinion, Marx’s claim to change the world shows that he has still been trapped in the restrictive relation between theory and practice; and Marx’s materialist view of history must have presupposed the productionist metaphysics; thus, contrary to its own intention, Marxism has achieved the extreme of nihilism. The reason for this, according to Heidegger, lies in that although Marx has abandoned the priority of consciousness, he adheres uncritically to the priority of human being, and so he goes further than Hegel in that he tries to demonstrate it in the realm of historical production instead of in the field of notions. Heidegger clarifies the differences concerning contemporary mankind between his and Marx’s position. While human being is taken for granted by Marx to be the radical being of the thing itself, he is understood by Heidegger to be da-sein in the clearing of Being. Heidegger aims to overcome nihilism by dissolving the priority of both consciousness and human being. However, Heidegger misunderstands the significance of Marx’s revolution. The distinctions between Heidegger and Marx are due to their different positions: one is a thinker of Being, and the other a revolutionary of history materialism.
