Philosophical Responsibility in the Age of Technology

Abstract

The theme of technology occupies a central position within Heidegger’s later reflections on the crisis. At first glance, a connection between technology and “crisis” may seem rather banal. There is certainly enough talk today about how a crisis has arisen from the dominance of technology, how technology divides humanity from its true self, prevents authentic communal life and separates us from our natural environment. However, Heidegger’s thought about technology moves on a rather different level than the nonnal chatter regarding a crisis brought about by technology. Indeed, one of the many fruits of Heidegger’s philosophy is that it reveals the close link between much of this chatter about the “crisis” and the very form of technological “thinking” which is said to be at the root of that crisis. That is, while showing that those who promote technology as either a good in itself or as some sort of neutral tool have little grasp of what is “happening” in technology, Heidegger also lets it be seen that many of those who attack technology have more in common with their “enemy” than they would be willing or happy to admit. Heidegger sees himself neither as championing nor vanquishing technology. Rather, he sees his task as raising questions about technology, and in doing so, opening a space for a nontechnological thinking about technology and about humanity.