Abstract

Technological advancement in the modern world has given rise to discussion and debate. These discussions concern numerous aspects of technology: for example, the notion that technology is self-correcting, and the ethical debate about the implementation of certain technologies. While some of the discussions only make sense to those with a very specialized knowledge, others are readily accessible to the lay person. The thinking of philosopher Martin Heidegger on technology seems to fit somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, being both specialized yet accessible to non-philosophers. The 1927 ground-breaking work by Martin Heidegger entitled Being and Time marks his particular kind of philosophy as a revival of the pre-Socratic attention to ontology, which he undertakes phenomenologically. In general this work addressed important philosophical issues which Heidegger believed to be a result of the Western philosophical tradition of ignoring ontology. This basic project also grounds some of his thinking on technology as he expressed it thirty years later in "The Question Concerning Technology." In this essay Heidegger argues for the importance of examining the essence of technology. Heidegger's position, it seems to me, offers some unique and important insights into the literature on technology, especially as it pertains to the impact of technology in the modern world and the relationship between the human being and technology. In this thesis I describe some of the early Heideggerian ideas which ground his later thought on technology, paying special attention to the existential structure of Being-in-the-world. It is my claim that Being-in-the-world plays an important role in what Heidegger understands as the extreme danger of technology, and as such attention to it can help illustrate Heidegger's position on technology.Dept. of Philosophy. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1996.I54. Source: Masterss International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0076. Adviser: Linda Fisher. Thesis --University of Windsor, 1996.