The metaphysics of globalization in heidegger

Abstract

By referring to Heidegger’s understanding of metaphysics in his later philosophy, a fundamental relationship between the tradition of metaphysical thinking and the globalization of the principles of modernity may be considered. Both metaphysics and globalization share the same concept of world, which since the beginnings of modernity is understood as the accessibility of beings in their entirety. The principles of modernity—such as world-accessibility, quantification, energy-funding, accumulation and dominance—are grounded in a metaphysical understanding of the human condition that is characterized by the subject-object division. This metaphysical understanding of the man-world relationship is considered to be the deeper rationale of all essential phenomena of the modern age—such as philosophy, technology, natural science, economy, politics of power, and even humanism—which all tend to globalize their fundamental principles. Investigating the Heideggerian criticisms of metaphysics helps in understanding the deeper meaning of the notion of ‘world’, as this term is used in the discourse about globalization.