Heidegger, Houellebecq and The Present Age of Disenchantment: A Philosophical Analysis of the Rise of the Fronte Nationale

The fundamental question that will be approached in this MA dissertation is the following: Why, in an age of unparalleled prosperity, can we observe the emergence of a powerful political movement, the “far-right”, that defines itself as a rejection of the entrenched norms of the status-quo and seeks to drastically recalibrate the nature of Western politics? In order to answer this question this thesis will turn to the writings of Martin Heidegger in order to show that the critique of technology, liberalism, democracy and progress that can be found in his work is echoed in the political ideology of the FN as well as providing a compelling and interesting explanation as to why the FN is rising in popularity. Where economistic and sociological explanations fail to account for the global scope of “far-right” politics,, this paper will offer a universalizable philosophical account of the “far-right”.