Heidegger on ontotheology

2021

In this article I attempt to present Heidegger's conception of the ontotheology in his late thought. I based mainly on his famous book “Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning).” In ontotheology Heidegger needs the figure of “the last god” to show the very path to being itself. It is not the God of religion, but the proper god of metaphysics, the god of other beginning, which using a sign (Wink) points Dasein the right direction. It seems to be a key to the meaning of ontotheology itself. The problem of ontotheology is presented against the backdrop of several of the most important contexts of Heidegger's thought manifested in “Contributions...”: the problem of being itself and the path to it or the problem of the last god and his sign.

This article helps to integrate Günther Anders, a critic of modern technology and theorist of the Nuclear Age still not widely known in the Anglophone world, into current critical discussions about Heidegger's Nazism and his legacy for contemporary thought.

Inquiry, 2001

1993

International journal of philosophical studies, 2001

1999

Continental Philosophy Review, 2014

after giving his lecture ''The Question Concerning Technology'' at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Martin Heidegger wrote in a letter to his wife: ''Yet the decisive thing is…the fact that a horizon is opening up amongst the young people, one which announces itself from within technology while going beyond it.'' The genesis of Heidegger's now famous essay occurred 4 years earlier, however, during a series of four lectures delivered on the evening of December 1st, 1949 to a semi-private group of wealthy ship brokers, businessmen, and industry leaders at the Club zu Bremen. The December 1949 lecture would mark Heidegger's first public speaking engagement since being made an Emeritus Professor at Freiburg University and the institution of a teaching ban as a result of his affiliation with the Nazi party, which, although lifted in 1949, would prevent him from teaching again until the winter semester of 1950-1951. It was at this prestigious Bremen club, in front of an audience of some of Germany's wealthiest businessmen, that Heidegger, who enjoyed an immense popularity in the free city of Bremen, would express some of his strongest criticisms of technology, modern industrialized society, and commodity culture. These lectures have been translated, for the first time in their entirety, along with an equally important set of five lectures delivered in 1957, as the Bremen and Freiburg Lectures: Insight Into That Which Is and Basic Principles of Thinking and represent the first complete translation of volume 79 of Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe (collected works). The lectures represent an exceptionally important contribution to English language Heidegger scholarship and provide an accessible look into Heidegger's later thought through Andrew Mitchell's adept translation. The translation of this volume of Heidegger's collected works is particularly important

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2005

In the 1950’s Martin Heidegger published the essay “The Question Concerning Technology” which has proven to be difficult to decipher for many contemporary thinkers engaged in extracting the meaning of his work. This is often attributed to his poetically composes and unconventional rhetoric which conceals his equally complicated philosophical perspective. This essay we will primarily highlight Heidegger’s vocabulary regarding the trajectory that our technological-modern age traces, which observes and criticizes the dangerous path that humanity pursues, thereby providing valuable insight into what the future holds. I will organize the sequence of Heidegger’s thoughts by addressing his essay and interlinking his ideas that respond to answering the question concerning the status and essence of technology. The valuable meaning is embedded within the interpretation of the terms with relation to the text and an effort for constructing an organized understanding has created obstacles. By looking beyond his unique writing style and focusing on his language I will organize Heidegger’s thoughts and grasp the valuable existential characteristics of technology. I will provide a comprehensive understanding of Heideggerian language and thought in order to synthesize his philosophy into an organized manner for clarification purposes.