PHILOSOPHY - Heidegger diagnosed modern humanity as suffering

from a number of diseases of the soul.

The Philosophers - Firstly, we have forgotten to notice

- Martin Heidegger is without doubt the most we're alive.

incomprehensible German philosopher that - We know it in theory, of course, but we

ever lived. aren't. Day to day properly in touch with a

- Nothing quite rivals the prose in his sheer mystery of existence.

masterpiece BEING IN TIME, which is filled - The mystery of what Heidegger called

with complex compound German words like DAS SEIN or in ENGLISH BEING.

Seinsvergessenheit, Bodenstandigkeit, and - It's only at a few odd moments, perhaps

Wesensverfassung. late at night or when we're ill and have been

- Yet beneath the jargon, Heidegger tells us alone all day or in a walk through the

some simple, even at times homespun countryside that we come up against the

truths about the meaning of our lives, the uncanny strangeness of everything, why

sicknesses of our time and the routes to things exist as they do, why we're here

freedom. We should bother with him. He rather than there, why the world is like it is

was born and in many ways remained a - What we're running away from is a

rural provincial German who loved picking confrontation with the opposite of being.

mushrooms, walking in the countryside and what Heidegger called DAS NICHTS, THE

going to bed early. NOTHING.

- He hated television, aeroplanes, pop - The second problem is we've forgotten

music and processed food. that all being is connected.

- At one time, he'd been a supporter of

Hitler, but saw the error of his ways. Much - Most of the time, our jobs and daily

of his life he spent in a hut in the woods routines make us egoistic and focused. We

away from modern civilization. He treat others and nature as means and not
as ends, but occasionally and again walks prejudices and practical necessities not of

in the country, a particularly conducive to our own making. The philosopher wants to

this realization. We may step outside our help us to overcome this proneness,

narrow orbit and take a more expansive GEWORFENHEIT (THROWNESS), as he

view. put it in German by understanding it.

- We may sense what Heidegger termed the - We need to grasp our psychological, social

UNITY OF BEING. and professional provincialism and then rise

- Noticing, for example, that we and that above it to a more universal perspective. In

Lady Bird on the bark and that rock and that so doing will make the classic Heideggerian

cloud over there are all in existence right journey away from UNEIGENTLICHKEIT

now and a fundamentally united by the (INAUTHENTICITY) to EIGENTLICHKEIT

basic fact of our common being. (AUTHENTICITY), from inauthenticity to

- Heidegger values these moments authenticity. We will, in essence, start to live

immensely and wants us to use them as the for ourselves. And yet, most of the time for

springboard to a deeper form of generosity Heidegger, we failed dismally at this task.

and overcoming of alienation and egoism, We merely surrender to a socialised,

and a more profound appreciation of the superficial mode of being he called

brief time that remains to us before DAS they-self (as opposed to ourselves). We

NICHTS (THE NOTHING), claims us in turn. follow The Chatter (des Gerede) in German,

- The third problem is we forget to be which we hear about in the newspapers, on

free and to live for ourselves. TV and in the large cities that Heidegger

- Much about us isn't, of course, very free. hated to spend time in.

We are in Heidegger's unusual formulation - What will help us to pull away from the

thrown into the world at the start of our lives, THEY-SELF is an appropriately intense

thrown into a particular and narrow social focus on our own upcoming death. It's only

milieu surrounded by rigid attitudes, archaic when we realize that other people cannot
save us from DAS NICHTS (THE for the sake of EIGENTLICHKEIT

NOTHING) that we're likely to stop living for (AUTHENTICITY) with a little help from that

them to stop worrying so much about what graveyard.

others think and to cease giving up the lion's

share of our lives and energies to impress THE QUESTION CONCERNING

people who never really liked us in the first TECHNOLOGY (& SOCIAL MEDIA) -

place. HEIDEGGER

- When in a lecture in 1961, Heidegger was

asked how we should better lead our lives. - Technology, if we think about it, is a broad

He replied tersely that we should simply aim term with a difficult definition. Oxford

to spend more time in 'graveyards'. It would defines it as the application of scientific

be lying to say that Heidegger's meaning knowledge for practical purposes,

and moral is ever very clear. Nevertheless, especially in industry.

what he tells us is intermittently fascinating, - The German philosopher Martin Heidegger

wise and surprisingly useful. Despite the had always been interested in technology,

extraordinary words and language. In a at its simplest, the hammer, the nail.

sense, we know a lot of it already. We - But in 1954, he published an essay that's

merely need reminding and emboldening to attempted to peel back the layers of what

take it seriously, which the odd prose style technology really is. This was nine years

may help us to do. We know in our hearts after World War Two, a war that would

that it's time to overcome our utilize technology to destroy half of Europe

GEWORFENHEIT (THROWNESS) that we and all of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. At the

should become more conscious of DAS same time, cities, factories and innovation

NICHTS (THE NOTHING) day to day and continued to grow at an immense speed.

that we owe it to ourselves to escape the This concerned Heidegger. He thought that

clutches of DAS GEREDE (THE CHATTER) new technologies and their effects weren't
just the result of natural human progression the causa EFFICIENS is the agent who

through innovation. He knew that this makes the chalice, the silversmith.

mentality could take us down dark and - The causa materialis in the case of social

dangerous paths. He set out his ideas on media, the hardware and the servers, but

the question concerning technology. He it's also the user generated content and the

starts off by telling us that the essence of profiles, the links to articles and news. It's

technology is by no means anything both raw material and raw data.

technical. -The causa FORMALIS is the code of the

- It is not simply the pushing forward of social networking service. The algorithms,

innovation of newer, faster and more the types of connections and how they're

efficient machines and systems and social organized and presented.

media. Like any technology is, at its The causa FINALIS is the different reasons

simplest, a human activity. It's a means to users want to connect with each other, but

an end. An instrument, what's an instrument ultimately it's about human connection. The

for instrumentality and means to ends imply desire to connect and the cause of visions is

causality. "I do this because I want to do the owner or creator of the platform. Like

that." This happens if I do this and if we Mark Zuckerberg, but it's also us, the user

borrow from Aristotle. All physical objects defining what we want to see in the pages

have four causas. Take the chalice, Aristotle we want to like, share and follow. It's

says. It has a causa MATERIALIS the already possible to see a difference

material, the silver out of which the chalice between industrial technology and social

is made. media.

The causa FORMALIS, the form, the shape -The latter (causa EFFICIENS) is becoming

of the chalice. The causa FINALIS, the a joint enterprise. Users take a direct part in

ends to make a chalice to drink from, and defining the shape it takes. In fact, there are

only two causes that we don't shape in any

way. The hardware and the algorithm. But grounded in revealing we reveal something

Heidegger would have exactly the same new and mysterious about us and the Earth

concerns about social media and 21st around us, what it can provide and what we

century technology as he did about early can draw from it. The craftsman brings forth

20th century technology, and it's the same the chalice and the engineer brings forth the

problem Heidegger had with two thousand jet engine like a flower blooming.

years of Western philosophy. It was -The Greeks called this POIESIS, bringing

obsessed with those causes, with Aristotle, forth something previously hidden. It's in

with measuring and quantifying and this way that technology is deeply

surveying and forms and materials for connected with our own psychology. It

Heidegger. comes from deep within us, from our

Those four causes reveal something more desires and needs, which are varied and

mysterious about being itself. Each cause both good and bad.

belongs together. Each is connected and co -Constructive and disruptive technology

responsible and draw something out from brings forth and uncovers something that

each of the other. The silversmith or the connects us to materials, forms ideas, the

coder brings forth the four causes, but all world that brings forth a mysterious

four are uniting, Heidegger writes. The revelation of being revealing our connection

causes bring something into appearance. to trees and metals and mountains and

They let it come forth into presenting. lakes to each other.

- Bringing something from concealment -For Heidegger, technology can be

into concealment is named VERITAS.. beautiful, but modern technology has

Truth a revelation. What has the essence of another face. It's also stores that something

technology of social media got to do with new that uncovered truth and stockpiles. It

revealing the answer for Heidegger is collects it.

everything for every bringing forth is

Take coal for Heidegger. Modern technology and inflaming social relations. But that

challenges the physical world to supply and enframing gets ahead of us when it's

store energy. Coal is stockpiled. Ready to presented back to us. We see it for what it is

be used, an airliner sits on a runway, ready rather than what it could be or how it

to be flown. started. It presents itself as the status quo

-Modern technology is what he calls when it's not. We forget that there's not

standing reserve on the internet. Data always a need to connect to everyone, to

information and connections are standing certain people, certain groups, we live in

reserve in the same way they're connected, fear of missing out on what's going on. We

quantified, organized. The challenge of forget its origins where enframing rains,

concealing, Heidegger writes, gathers man Heidegger writes, there is danger in the

into ordering. This gathering concentrates highest sense.

man upon ordering the real as standing - Heidegger predicted the problems of

reserve, Heidegger calls this Gestell, or modern technology of globalization

Enframing technology reveals stand's problems that seem too big to comprehend

reserve then and frames. When we begin a to challenge. But he also suggests simple

pursuit to collect coal and cars and phones answers How do we want to stockpile and

and Facebook friends, it quickly seems store? Do we need to? Who makes the

natural. The thing we do gets ahead of us, decisions that and frame us? Do we want

surrounds us, calls upon us to use it to opaque companies doing the standing

continue it because like nature, it's suddenly reserve, the framing of something as

there and liking, clicking and sharing. It's our important as human connectivity? Who

own data, our own personalities, us that controls the algorithm? The order? You see

stored up standing reserve and is presented things in the weights given to stories or

back to us. The essence of social media is friends hired to get provides us with some

nothing technical, but as a way of revealing well thought out concepts to analyze
technology and their relationship to being. - there is a whole host of other work that

But it's up to us to think before we use the does not get the attention it truly deserves.

stop technology taking us somewhere that one of those underrated works is THE

we might not want to go. QUESTION CONCERNING

TECHNOLOGY.

- this video over the Question Concerning

MARTIN HEIDEGGER: THE QUESTION Technology is a part two follow up to Being

CONCERNING TECHNOLOGY
and Time

- "the first thing to say is that i'm not against - As Heidegger is really known for his

technology. i've never spoken against phenomenology and his existentialism, I

technology nor i would demonize think that this essay really lends itself

technology. but i only tru to understand the towards critical theory. And as we see that

nature of technology. when you qoute this this work is not a separation of

thoufht about the danger of the atom bomb phenomenology or existentialism, it

and the even greater danger of technology, fundamentally changes the makeup of how

i'm thinking of what today is developing as we view the modern condition and how we

biophysics, that in the foreseeable future, view being with technology.

we'll be able to do this with human beings, - Our prior conceptions of technology was

that is, construct them in their organic one of exterior systems. We ultimately saw

nature as one needs them;" - martin technology as a mere separate entity from

heidegger us. As Heidegger rejects the separation of

- martin heidegger is one of the most well technology and us.

renowned philosophers of all time as he is - To Heidegger, humans are questioning

primarily known for his work BEING AND beings. Within being and the fundamental

TIME.. care and interaction as human beings,

questioning and curiosity is woven within

that framework.This is why the fundamental - To Heidegger, we as humans, are actually

meaning of technology is so important. In a kind of blind to technology. Heidegger

weird way, we are technology and quotes this as follows: "We will never

technology is us. experience our relationship to the essence

- So what is technology? And what does of technology, so long as we merely

technology mean? represent and pursue the technological."

- To Heidegger, to understand technology, - Heidegger is trying to convey that so long

we ultimately need to understand the as we remain in a certain attitude towards

essence of technology. When concerning technology, towards its ultimate utility, its

technology, we don't typically think about purpose, we will never be able to truly

the essence, we think about how the understand technology, its essence, and

technology affects us, the utility of that even its relation to us.

specific technology at hand, and the like. - There is something else that Heidegger

And while these questions are not bad wants to dispel: we have this common

questions,and they are necessary to some notion in society that technology is

extent. something neutral, that it holds absolutely

Heidegger wants us to look directly at the no moral baggage to it.

essence of technology. You may be Heidegger rejects this outright and claims

watching this on a computer monitor, you that technology has all kinds of moral

may be watching this on a smart phone, and baggage to it.

when asked about the essence of - Technology, changes the entire

technology, you may use a smart phone, trajectory of society as a whole. And with

you may use a monitor as an example of that, in possible realm could technology

the essence of technology .But, an example simply be a means, in no realm could

of an actual physical form of technology technology simply be a neutral tool.

isn't actually the essence of technology.

- It's important to understand that Heidegger - One being, that technology is not a

is approaching this question of technology, mere instrument, it's not a mere neutral

as a metaphysical endeavor. He wants to tool. It is ultimately a way of

understand the fundamental essence of understanding the world.

technology while also not rejecting the prior - The second is, technology is not

notions of technology actually being an necessarily a human activity alone, but

external means and human activity. ultimately technology develops beyond

- In Heidegger's eyes, the metaphysical human control. And almost beyond

essence of technology does not have to human comprehension.

contradict the truth surrounding the means - And then the third, is technology is the

of technology and the human activity around actual highest danger. It is something

it. that we must use extreme caution

- Ultimately, he is trying to convey, that it is towards. Not necessarily in a physical

true that technology is a means, and sense, but in a metaphysical and

ultimately that technology is a form of conceptual sense. That we risk seeing the

human activity. Yet, he also wants to convey world only through a technological lens.

that actually doesn't get at the essence of - So technology as a means of

technology, and that both of these understanding the world, lets dive into that.

viewpoints don't necessarily have to be To identify the essence of technology, it is to

wrong and contradict one another. ultimately lay bear technology as a clearing.

In Heideggerian terminology, a clearing is

- So moving forward, there are three something that reveals itself to us. Like

essential claims Heidegger is making in the when you are in the middle of the woods

Question Concerning Technology: and there is a clearing to an open field,

conceptually, a clearing is a way of

exposing an idea. A good visual of this is

the human metaphor of a light-bulb going off essentially one large resource, waiting to be

when you understand something. used, waiting to be processed.

Technology operates in this way. - In the present, the resource focused world

Technology sways our being, our DASEIN, is already so ingrained into our being, that

as a way of understanding the world. As a even hearing something like the world is

way of exposing more. one large resource, waiting to be exploited,

- Heidegger quotes this as follows: waiting to be used, does not even seem

"Technology, is therefore no mere means. problematic in the slightest to many.

Technology is a way of revealing. If we give - With Being and Time, understanding the

heed to this, then another whole realm for unity between you, the world, the plants, the

the essence of technology will open itself up animals.

to us. It is the realm of revealing, i.e., of In this standing reserve context, in this

truth." It can reveal things about us. It can modern outlook. We see that we run the risk

reveal things of technology, that we didn't of partitioning ourselves away. In

once know. Heidegger ultimately places a pre-modernity, there was a fundamental

lot of emphasis on revealing relationship that

meaning for us as well through the lens of Heidegger recognized between nature and

technology. people. That the trees were my home, that

- So as a technological revelation, ultimately

Heidegger also focuses on how we interact the trees were used to create a home. That

with the world our being, in a modern if I needed to light a fire, that the trees were

technological context. In this modern available to me in that relationship. In a

technological context, the world is standing reserve, not so much. The trees,

partitioned away into what Heidegger calls a the resources themselves, become an

Standing Reserve. What Heidegger means abstraction.

by standing reserve, is that the world is

There is no relationship to you when the authentic companionship.

only concern is how much money am I - And while Heidegger would certainly admit

going to make from these trees? How much that these relationships can still exist, but, in

money and utility is going to come from this this technological mode of being.This realm

plot of land? of human stock, this realm of

- Heidegger notices when there is no hyper-productivity, we may only view

relational context to how you interact with humans and companionship as a means of

the world. It festers elsewhere. If the trees, if utility.

the soil, if the water, are all resources to be - How about the semantics and language

used. How about people? Given the unity structure surrounding organizations? We

between all. What will stop us from looking see business, we see corporations,

at people in the exact same context? completely partition people away into

- As an abstraction, used to make money. resources. We see that the departments

Used to garner utility. This is an ultimate that manage these people are actually

danger in what technology poses to us. And called human resources or HR. In this

what ultimately, modernity failed to grasp. context, we see that these executives, these

And these are only the most visceral of CEOs, these business owners don't really

examples. Modes of communication, see their employees as people. They see

organization, have all been affected from them as actual tangible resources, In this

this technological mode of being. Friendly way, this is how technology is not a mere

gatherings aren't mere friendly gatherings neutral tool. It is a clearing, it is a revelation

anymore. These inner human affairs are of human interaction in the world. And an

partitioned away into networking. They're ultimate arbiter of change in this regard.

partitioned away into career gain. This - By revealing beings no more than the

removes measurable, the manipulative, technology

the same notion of friendly relationships, of ultimately reduces beings into not-beings,
as Heidegger put. As people, as plants, as And in the poiesis of today, it is much more

animals, are standing reserve, we lose the brutal, it is much more jagged, and it is

very core element of what makes us beings. much less human in his eyes.

That is our relationship to one another, and - To Heidegger, the pre-industrial trades of

our direct importance to one another. the past reflect this.

Because, if there is more of us, if there are Heidegger writes: "If he is to become a true

more trees, more water, we have a standing cabinet maker, he makes himself answer

reserve of more. Therefore, we lose our and respond above all to the different kinds

sacred elements as beings. of wood, and to the shapes slumbering

- Not only this, but, we ultimately lose within wood,

concern over the actual power that nature to wood as it enters into man's dwelling with

harnesses. As we become more all the hidden riches of its essence. In fact,

technologically adept, as we grow as a this relatedness to wood is what maintains

species, we almost come into play as a war the whole craft. Without that relatedness,

like entity against nature. Where the the craft will never be anything but empty

ultimate technological goal is to harness busywork, any occupation with it will be

nature, the ultimate technological goal is to determined exclusively by business

control it. concerns. Every handicraft, all human

- Pre-industrial societies did not used to look dealings, are constantly in that danger."

at nature like this. We looked at nature as a - Heidegger is claiming that the poiesis of

way in how we can work with it. Heidegger today, does not concern itself with

refers to these different modes of revealing, relationships. It's concern is productivity.

of working with nature, and controlling It's concern is with utility, and ultimately it's

nature, as poiesis. The poiesis of the past, concern is with business dealings.

the revealing of nature of the past, was Therefore, that direct relationship with

more in line with poetry in Heidegger's eyes. nature is often lost.

- Again, technology offers itself up as a that we would actually have the

revelation. As a way and means of technological capability 20-30 years later?

understanding. - In a paradoxical sense, he'd point out the

Rather than just a neutral tool. Further, it sheer hypocrisy in thinking this, while also

offers itself up as a state of mind. A state abiding by science. We create an almost

of mind that has completely encapsulated unscientific worship of science. Heidegger

the west in Heidegger's eyes. This mindset points out that there is an ultimate

threatens the authenticity of our lives, it responsibility in how we deal with

threatens our relationships, and one of the technology today. With our central attitude

most important points according to towards it, and our basic utilization of it.

Heidegger is how it makes us complacent to - Further, he would argue that our lack of

existential danger. With this mindset, we understanding of the essence and

could ruin ourselves. metaphysical way of technology is even

- Think about 2020, how often do we hear more harmful.

every other month, about the limited amount In the end, Heidegger is not anti-science,

of time left we have to fix climate change. In he's not anti-technology. Rather, he wants to

this technological mode of being, we don't fight against the actual technological modes

really of being that encapsulate the west. In a

have to worry about climate change, weird way, he believes that this

because whenever climate change happens technological way of being will actually kill

in the next 30 to 40 years, well, guess itself in the end.

what? We'll have the technological - Mimicking the Marxist accelerationism of

capability in dealing with that. capitalism, ironically enough, Heidegger

But, Heidegger would ask the question: how believes that people will understand the

would you know that? How would you know sacredness of pre-industrial society, and

that even with our modern technology, we

will still be able to find a way to live like we potentially jeopardize everything that makes

did before. us human, and the very meaning that

- The Question Concerning Technology encompasses our humanity.

ultimately is a critique of our modern ways

of being, and an inquiry into the

metaphysical nature of technology.It's again

important to note that Heidegger is not

anti-technology. Rather, he is against the

sheer attitude around technology, the hyper

obsession with resources

and the hyper obsession with productivity

that comes with that attitude.

- As Heidegger pointed out, technology is

not technological. Technology is a mode of

being and its a mode of revealing. We

should view the Question Concerning

Technology as a reminder to look deeper

into something. That the metaphysical may

not be dead, and that we should not

become complacent with technology. We

should not rely on the idea that technology

will solve every single existential crisis. And

further, we should examine our relationships

closer, we should not partition important

things like technology away into a neutral

arbiter, or a neutral tool. As we can