Heidegger's philosophy of science

the two essences of science

John D. Caputo

pp. 43-60

in: Joseph Margolis, Michael Krausz, Richard M. Burian (eds), Rationality, relativism and the human sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

The later Heidegger criticized the kind of thinking which, bent only on control and exploitation, threatens to overrun the contemporary technological world. He directed this critique, not precisely against technology, but against what he called the "essence" (Wesen) of technology, where Wesen had the old verbal sense of coming to be, coming to pass, coming about.¹ He was concerned, not with technological instruments themselves, but with what is coming to pass in and through a world filled with these instruments. What mattered for Heidegger is our understanding of ourselves and of the world in an age governed by the paradigm of technological control. He offered an important critique of the totalitarian tendencies of contemporary culture, in virtue of which science and technology are swept up in a repressive, totalizing movement which threatens to run out of control.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin