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2020 - Volume 4 - Number 1

Thinking Essence, Thinking Technology: A Response to Don Ihde’s Charge

Bowen Zha * zhb.bowen.030@s.kyushu-u.ac.jp * ORCID: 0000-0002-8432-4074 * ResearcherID: AAO-3584-2020
Kyushu University, Faculty of Humanities, Fukuoka, JAPAN

Open Journal for Studies in Philosophy, 2020, 4(1), 1-10 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsp.0401.01001z
Received: 6 April 2020 ▪ Accepted: 25 May 2020 ▪ Published Online: 2 June 2020

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
Heidegger’s seminal lecture, The Question Concerning Technology, has greatly influenced the contemporary philosophy of technology. However, scholars have different views regarding whether Heidegger’s concept of technology is essentialist. On the one hand, Andrew Feenberg and Don Ihde have argued for this description, while on the other, Iain Thomson has claimed that, though Heidegger appears to be a technological essentialist, but does little to discredit his profound ontological understanding of the historical impact of technology. In this essay, I will focus on Ihde’s critique and argue that his charge of essentialism is itself a misinterpretation of Heidegger’s understanding of technology. I conclude that the meaning of essence in Heidegger’s technology should be interpreted as that of “enduring,” and in that way, describing Heidegger’s concept of technology as essentialism is a metaphysical misinterpretation.

KEY WORDS: Martin Heidegger, Don Ihde, the essence of technology, romanticism, essentialism.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Bowen Zha (PhD student), Kyushu University, Faculty of Humanities, Philosophy Department, Fukuoka, JAPAN. E-mail: zhb.bowen.030@s.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

REFERENCES:

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Heidegger, M. (1975). Discourse on thinking. New York: Harper & Row.

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Ihde, D. (2010). Heidegger’s technologies: Postphenomenological perspectives. Fordham University Press.

Peter-Paul Verbeek, T. R. (2005). What things do: Philosophical reflections on technology, agency, and design. The Pennsylvania State University Press University Park, Pennsylvania.

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Tabachnick, D. E. (2007). Heidegger’s essentialist responses to the challenge of technology. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 487-505.

Thomson, I. (2000). What’s wrong with being a technological essentialist? A response to Feenberg. Inquiry, 429-44.

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