Heidegger's Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics, and Art

by Zimmerman, Michael E (1990)

Abstract

The relation between Martin Heidegger's understanding of technology and his affiliation with and conception of National Socialism is the leading idea of this fascinating and revealing book. Zimmerman shows that the key to the relation between Heidegger's philosophy and his politics was his concern with the nature of working and production.

Key Passage

The degradation of work in the twentieth century has reduced the time and skill needed for authentic craftwork, except for those who "drop out" of the social mainstream in order to pursue what they consider to be authentic producing. Nevertheless, great craftworkers remain. Perhaps the attraction such craftspeople have for us today lies in our awareness that they are attuned to things in a way in which most of us are not. Consider, however, the admiration many people display for the intricate circuitry of a computer or the engine of a Mercedes-Benz. We often express amazement at the precision and beauty of such products. For the most part, they have been produced in gigantic factories in which much of the work is done by robots attended by human personnel.I6 Yet are not robots and computers themselves human inventions? Even graphic artists who use computer imagery remind us that the artist is still responsible for the images executed by the computer program. Technological products, too, are in some sense human crafts—but not handicrafts. Because Heidegger believed that the human hand was essentially linked to our awareness of being, he maintained that authentic "producing" had to involve work with the hands. Skilled hands "know" the materials with which they work. But those hands have always used tools. At what point does a tool escape the play of the hand and become master of it? Is it then that the potential for truly human acting and producing vanishes? If so, is that why Heidegger regarded the technological world as an "un-world," a placeless place? Heidegger believed that technological humanity no longer "dwells" upon the earth, but instead regards it as Le Corbusier suggested that we regard a house: as a machine to live in. (p.241)

Links to Reference

• https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=0eJa3xPCThsC
• https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0eJa3xPCThsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Heidegger+%26+Technology+%26+Workers&ots=CHAp8U6-8t&sig=xtnQUhbHZhU-ftssdcCc6pN-cpc

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