Product Description

"To read Heidegger is to set out on an adventure. The essays in this volume--intriguing, challenging, and often baffling to the reader--call him always to abandon all superficial scanning and to enter wholeheartedly into the serious pursuit of thinking....

"Heidegger is not a 'primitive' or a 'romanitic.' He is not one who seeks escape from the burdens and responsibilities of contemporary life into serenity, either through the re-creating of some idyllic past or through the exalting of some simple experience. Finally, Heidegger is not a foe of technology and science. He neither disdains nor rejects them as though they were only destructive of human life.

"The roots of Heidegger's hinking lie deep in the Western philosophical tradition. Yet that thinking is unique in many of its aspects, in its language, and in its leterary expression. In the development of this thought Heidegger has been taught chiefly by the Greeks, by German idealism, by phenomenology, and by the scholastic theological tradition. In him these and other elements have been fused by his genius of sensitivity and intellect into a very individual philosophical expression."--William Lovitt, from the Introduction

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83987 in Books
• Published on: 1982-02-19
• Released on: 1982-01-19
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

About the Author
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is one of the twentieth century's most important, controversial, and influential philosophers. He is the author of the monumental Being and Time as well as other works translated and published in English as Basic Writings, Poetry, Language, Thought, On Time and Being, and On the Way to Language.

Customer Reviews

Heidegger at his best and most relevant
The Question Concerning Technology frequently has been criticized as lacking content beneath Heidegger's stormy language. Not true! It may take more than one reading (it took me about 5), but once the meaning of the concept of Enframing really takes a hold of you, it becomes the most powerful and relevant philosophical concept since Nietzsche's will to power. Responding to the challenge of Enframing, man has reduced the world of Being to his own self-referential bubble. Heidegger's words are at times the bleakest that the 20th century has to offer, yet in the second essay "The Turning," he suggests that Enframing's pervasive control of the world also provides a context for true, authentic behavior through the resistance of this powerful force. Authenticity is not a possibility for Heidegger without danger. For the detailed and patient reader, Heidegger provides a compelling description of global technology and its implications, distinguishing between the essence of technology and technological activity as well as the vibrations the essence of technology stirs in the realms of truth and ethics.

What's philosophy?
Seriously, I'm not into philosophy and I only read this book for one of my generals. I'm a senior in Computer Science and I thought this would maybe give me a different view on technology. Not exactly, really there is nothing technical at all and it's a really hard to read. After you start to understand his language (yeah feels like a whole new language), you start to understand his meaning. I find his dense sentences to be necessary though, after you start to understand what he's saying it gets pretty entertaining.

Thing is you can get everything in this book online somewhere, and some guides that will help you through it. I read better with a hard copy, which is the only reason I bought the book. Turns out this guy is pretty big in the philosophy world, so it's a good read if that stuff intrigues you. Personally, I'm going to stick to programming and stay "enframed".

A Tough Nut to Crack
This book is what it is. Be prepared to be confronted with terse, abstract language. If you are feeling up to the challenge of figuring out it's nuances and insights, give it a go. I was particularly interested in the essay about the pros and cons about technology. However, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the diction of the book and never got around to reading much. I have set aside the book for a time later in life when I am more mature and patient and ready to wrestle with contemplating the full meaning. I was also disappointed to learn from others that Heidegger may have been rather Anti-Semitic against Jews despite his literary contributions. There's really nothing to complain about nor anything to celebrate. Another old dead philospher leaves his mark upon the world and we are left pondering the meaning.