Martin Heidegger on Science and Technology: It’s Implication to the Society

Abstract

Martin Heidegger stands out as one of the greatest philosophers in the contemporary period. His philosophy centers on Being. His contribution to philosophy is to recover the real meaning of Being that other philosophers had forgotten. For him, Being manifests itself anew at different times. He approaches this problem of Being in three stages, the first stage is Dasein analysis, the second is art and truth as a path to Being; the final stage is Being as a process that is expressed as ereignis and Gelassenheit. Science and technology falls with the second stage of Heidegger’s view on Being. Heidegger is not against science and technology but the abuse. According to Heidegger, the poet names the holy, the philosopher thinks Being, the men of science and technology are also aspired by Being; therefore, the men of science and technology should not produce things that will bring progress to man. But today people are slaves to things they produce one cannot think well again without using calculator or cell phone, one cannot spell English words correctly without the aid of computer. We are now annihilated human beings. In this work, I wish to make us aware of certain elements which might prove destructive to our society, if they are not properly guarded against in our bid to reach the apex of science and technology. Our method is textual analysis, a critical look at the original tools of Heidegger and the commentaries written on an aim by other books authors to know the effects of science and technology in our society.