Heidegger's Technologies

Heidegger is the only thinker of his generation whose philosophy of technology is still widely read today. In it, he made three basic claims. First, he asserted that the essence of technology is not technological--that technology is not a neutral instrumentality. Second, he claimed that there is a qualitative difference between modern and traditional technologies. Third and most interestingly, he claimed that technology is a metaphysical perspective, a paradigmatic view of the whole of nature.
Although Martin Heidegger remains recognized as a founder of the philosophy of technology, in the last sixty years a whole new world of technologies has appeared-bio-, nano-, info-, and imaging. With technology, time moves fast. Does philosophical time move, too? How adequate is Heidegger's thinking now for understanding today's technological advances?
After an extensive Introduction that places Heidegger within the thinking about technology typical of his time, the author, a prominent philosopher of technology, reexamines Heidegger's positions from multiple perspectives-historical, pragmatic, anti-Romantic and postphenomenological. His critiques invert Heidegger's essentialism and phenomenologically analyze Heidegger's favored and disfavored technologies. In conclusion, he undertakes a concrete analysis of the technologies Heidegger used to produce his writing and discovers heretofore undiscussed and ironic results.
Overall, the book not only serves as an excellent introduction Heidegger's philosophy of technology and a corrective in outlining its limitations, it indicates a postphenomenological counter-strategy for technological analysis, one that would look at the production of technology in practice, based on observing its forms of embodied activity.

“Heidegger's technologies is a versatile and refreshing critique of Heidegger's views on technology. The book embodies a fascinating discussion between two of the most prominent voices in philosophy of technology- one from the past, the other from the present. Without any doubt, Don Ihde's compelling and often ironic reflections will inspire new directions in philosophy of technology. -----Peter-Paul Verbeek, Twente University”

"Heidegger's technologies is a versatile and refreshing critique of Heidegger's views on technology. The book embodies a fascinating discussion between two of the most prominent voices in philosophy of technology- one from the past, the other from the present. Without any doubt, Don Ihde's compelling and often ironic reflections will inspire new directions in philosophy of technology." -- -Peter-Paul Verbeek Twente University "This book is a very good introductory text on Heidegger's philosophy of technology, and I would say also of Heidegger's thought in general." -Minds & Machines "Don Ihde is one of the most influential philosophers of the last quarter of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, and the essays collected here contain some of his best, and adequately reflect his dependence on, but also his developments away from Heidegger. The book is thus likely to find the wide audience it deserves." -- -Paul Durbin University of Delaware

Don Ihde is Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Stony Brook University. His most recent books include Experimental Phenomenology: Multistability; Heidegger’s Technologies: Postphenomenological Perspectives (Fordham); and Embodied Technics.

Heidegger is the only thinker of his generation whose philosophy of technology is still widely read today. In it, he made three basic claims. First, he asserted that the essence of technology is not technological--that technology is not a neutral instrumentality. Second, he claimed that there is a qualitative difference between modern and traditional technologies. Third and most interestingly, he claimed that technology is a metaphysical perspective, a paradigmatic view of the whole of nature. Although Martin Heidegger remains recognized as a founder of the philosophy of technology, in the last sixty years a whole new world of technologies has appeared--bio-, nano-, info-, and imaging. With technology, time moves fast. Does philosophical time move, too? How adequate is Heidegger's thinking now for understanding today's technological advances? After an extensive Introduction that places Heidegger within the thinking about technology typical of his time, the author, a prominent philosopher of technology, reexamines Heidegger's positions from multiple perspectives--historical, pragmatic, anti-Romantic and postphenomenological. His critiques invert Heidegger's essentialism and phenomenologically analyze Heidegger's favored and disfavored technologies. In conclusion, he undertakes a concrete analysis of the technologies Heidegger used to produce his writing and discovers heretofore undiscussed and ironic results. Overall, the book not only serves as an excellent introduction Heidegger's philosophy of technology and a corrective in outlining its limitations, it indicates a postphenomenological counter-strategy for technological analysis, one that would look at the production of technology in practice, based on observing its forms of embodied activity.

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