Heidegger is recognized as one of the most important western thinkers of the 20th century and was of decisive significance to the fields of Western philosophy and the humanities in the 20th century. More importantly, of all the philosophers of the 20th century, Heidegger's reflection on technology was undoubtedly the most profound.
In 1946, in Metaphysical Overcoming, Heidegger proposed that human calculation and planning triumph over all animality, that man became the most important raw material, and that one day we would build human reproduction factories to control the fertility of men and women on a planned basis as needed.
In 1953, Heidegger said, the era of man making himself and processing himself is coming soon. That same year, in Science and Contemplation he wrote that science had developed a power that could not be found anywhere else on earth, and was eventually covering the whole of the earth... Now we want too much to forget that "don't" is just as important to humanity.
More than half a century later, these perceptions seem profound in today's world of artificial intelligence and life sciences.
It has been 40 years of reform and opening up, looking back at the past, the Chinese language community has invited many Western philosophers, most of whom have gradually snubbed and forgotten after being warmly treated by us. However, Heidegger is one of the few exceptions, as the famous philosopher Liu Xiaofeng said, "We still love this German philosopher as much as ever." It can be said that in more than a century, it has been one of the three philosophers who have had the greatest influence on Chinese thought and culture. The first is Marx, the second Nietzsche, and the third is Heidegger.
In fact, not only in China, but also in the entire international academic community, Heidegger's reputation is also rare in the entire history of philosophy. How famous is he? Heidegger died in 1976, and the number of studies on Heidegger is now the number one in the world. Plato's philosopher more than 2,000 years ago, Kant was a philosopher 300 years ago, and Marx had as much influence in socialist countries as there is, but there is now less literature on any philosopher in the world than there is for Heidegger.
What does the reader's love for Heidegger mean for the Chinese academic community? This question is about the mental qualities of China's future readers.
In the early 1960s, the Department of Philosophy of Peking University was commissioned to compile an anthology of existential philosophy, including Mr. Xiong Wei's first Chinese translation of Heidegger's writings. But at that time, no one in the great China would read Heidegger, and Heidegger did not arrive in China. It was not until the period of reform and opening up that Heidegger immediately received attention. However, why he continues to receive attention is not easy to explain.
Sartre
Take Sartre for a comparison. At the end of 1986, the "Modern Western Scholarship" library of Beijing Sanlian Bookstore launched a Chinese translation of Sartre's "Existence and Nothingness", and at the end of the following year, Heidegger's "Existence and Time", "Existence and Time" was issued in 70,000 copies, and Sartre's "Existence and Nothingness" was distributed in 100,000 copies. But who else is reading Sartre today? The philosopher Liu Xiaofeng humorously described that "Sartre was gradually left out in the cold and had to return, while Heidegger, we sincerely cleaned our rooms, and even vacated the bedroom to let him live." "Because we deeply feel that the Western philosophers who can bring a historic turning point to Chinese thought are none other than Heidegger."
What are the theoretical instincts that make Heidegger and Chinese scholars so familiar? It is said that Heidegger's philosophy is too much like our ancient philosophy. But could it be that we have not yet properly grasped the dangerous qualities of Heidegger's thought? The ongoing fascination with Heidegger is a "fascinating danger."
Professor Sun Zhouxing of Tongji University believes that Heidegger has created a new understanding of our world.
There were several important philosophies of the 20th century, one called analytic philosophy, one called Marxism, one called phenomenology, and these are the largest kinds of philosophies. But Marxism is actually the 19th century, analytic philosophy is left over from the 19th century, and only phenomenology is the new philosophy of the 20th century. This philosophy offers a new way of understanding the world.
In simple terms, in a phenomenological view, everything is interconnected, and this idea sounds simple to our Chinese, but europeans don't think so. There was a great change in western philosophy as a whole from classical to modern times to the 20th century, and classical philosophy assumed that things themselves had a structure, and that the existence of things and the meaning of things had a basic composition. After the Renaissance, the existence of things and the meaning of things are set to be given to it by the "subject" of man, an apple, because people call it "apple", so it becomes meaningful, all things are the objects of "me", and "I" gives it meaning, which is the beginning of modern philosophy, which is an object thinking.
In the 20th century, Heidegger did not think like this, he believed that the meaning of things, the existence of things, depends on how "I" relate to things, and the concept between me and things and things constitutes a world, a concept. This is a new understanding of the world, including the understanding of man, which was most powerful in the 20th century by the so-called "existentialist" philosophy, which was one of the most powerful and influential philosophical currents of the 20th century, and Heidegger was the epitome of existentialism.
Now it seems that the most important point of Heidegger's thought is the thinking of the "future", which is associated with the thinking of technology. Arguably, he is the deepest critic of technology and the pioneer of ideas for the future world. There are many problems of our time, but the technical problem is the core problem, because most of the other problems are initiated by modern technology-industry-commerce, and it can be said that whoever grasps the technical problems in this era will seize the lifeblood of the times. To think about technical problems as the core of modernity, Heidegger may have done it best.
Science and technology development to today, human beings are extremely concerned about technical issues, especially the current artificial intelligence, biotechnology, so that our attention to the future fate of mankind is unprecedented, and even some people say that we can live forever, will not die, everyone is also very excited to hear, excited after not knowing what to do.
In 1900, the average life expectancy of our human beings was 39 years old, and now it is about 79 years old, which has doubled, and in 20 to 50 years, it should not be a problem. But you think a lot of questions come out. Not to mention not dying, at least we have done a little, and it is entirely possible to extend the life expectancy by 1 times, and then double it. The person who has doubled is no longer a natural person, but another kind of person. Also, what do we do when we are alive? What are we going to do? How do we pass this boring and long time?
The well-being of technology and our planning for the future have become problems, and Heidegger has made a philosophical reflection on these issues, and in his 1953 report, he said, "The time for man to make himself and process himself is coming." Looking back at this statement now, Heidegger's thinking is very profound.
Philosophical circles generally began to reflect on the problem of technology from the end of World War II, because everyone was immersed in panic about such an event as the atomic bombing. Two atomic bombs reduced 200,000 people to ashes in ten seconds. Normal people can't understand this. At that time, many people completely changed their worldview, and many philosophers began to reflect on the problem of technology.
Heidegger actually began to pay attention to and think about the problem of technology in the 1930s, and experienced World War II in the middle, in 1946's "Metaphysical Overcoming", he proposed that calculation and planning defeated all animal nature, man became the most important raw material, and people would one day build human reproduction factories, and control the fertility of men and women in a planned way according to needs. In Science and Contemplation in 1953, he wrote that science had developed a power that could not be found anywhere else on Earth, and was eventually covering the entire planet.
Heidegger later called the crisis of the modern world nihilism. What he means by nihilism is not a moral crisis, not that our lives have lost their moral foundations, not even a value crisis in the Nietzschean sense, such as the absence of the last faith to rely on, "God is dead", and so on. The crisis of nihilism he spoke of was the crisis of the entire modern civilization as a technological age. For the essence of technology is first to turn "existence" into some kind of recognizable object, an intelligible "being", and then to conquer and control it. Technology is like formatting a computer, formatting everything. In this way, the living world of man has no mystery and no source of meaning.
Heidegger said that in the age of technology, why did the gods have to flee? For the gods must stay in a place that no one can touch. In the past, we all thought that there was Chang'e on the moon, so there were many poems and arts related to the moon, but now you know clearly that the moon is a planet that people can climb, so Chang'e can't stay in it. The Greeks used to think that there were Zeus and other gods on Mount Olympia, but now that people can easily climb it, the gods naturally cannot stay on Mount Olympia. But Heidegger says that man's survival must be premised on and pulled by some kind of realm that is invisible to man, dark, obscured, and unrevealed. This is a more suspenseful thought in Heidegger's later period, and it is also where he is closer to Taoism. Taoists have always believed that technology cannot reach the "Tao". This is also one of the reasons why Heidegger liked Taoism more in his later period.
At the deepest level, Heidegger's late thought forces us to think about many of the major questions of human survival in the age of technology. Because in the age of technology man is not only facing the flight of the gods, but also important ethical and moral issues that are closely related to our concrete lives. Heidegger will ask us, is there a realm that humans cannot grasp and control? In his later period, he believed that "existence" is the source of all thought, and we must always be in awe of it. Existence, though beyond the reach of our minds, derives from its gifts.
Arguably, among the philosophers of the 20th century, Heidegger offered one of the deepest reflections on technology. Now the philosophy of technology is getting more and more attention, and in recent years or in the next few years, his thinking in this regard has attracted more and more attention from us.
In 2017, led by Tesla CEO Musk, more than 100 scientists sent a letter to the United Nations calling for a ban on AI weapons. But more than a month later, the Pentagon announced the use of deep learning and neural network systems in actual combat. It is clear that sovereign states are scrambling on this front, as in the nuclear race of the last century, where whoever comes first is the boss; in this case, the contemplation of "technology" is particularly necessary. In May 2018, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger proposed that a presidential commission of prominent thinkers should be formed to help develop a national vision for artificial intelligence. "Just as I don't understand technology, AI developers lack an understanding of politics and philosophy," he said. From the perspective of reconciling AI with human traditions, AI should be at the top of the national agenda. If we don't start this work as soon as possible, we'll soon find out that it's too late to start. ”
Heidegger was rector of the University of Freiburg for 10 months between 1933 and 1934, during which time he joined the Nazi Party, signed documents, and resigned 10 months later because his proposals were not approved by the Nazi Ministry of Education.
Tongji University once introduced a German philosopher, Peter Schwartz. Trafney, who edited several of Heidegger's notes during the Nazi period, called The Black Notes, contained four or five places where there were anti-Semitic expressions. What made the academic community and the Germans even more devastated was that after World War II, Heidegger did not apologize or admit his mistakes. The situation is roughly that French philosophers and intellectuals are defending Heidegger, and German philosophers are attacking Heidegger. Imagine how the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, who was once a Nazi politically, make us believe in his philosophy? Some say that Heidegger's later books had Nazi leanings may be inaccurate. Philosophy is holistic and grandiose thinking, politics is partial. What do we do when a great philosopher makes mistakes on a local political question? The experience of history shows that great philosophers are mostly politically stupid. I think it is necessary to avoid using Heidegger's political mistakes to completely negate Heidegger's philosophy, and of course not to say the other way around that Heidegger has no problems in politics.
In a way, politics is not the focus of Heidegger's attention, and his thinking enters another dimension.
As for the philosopher's lapse or moral flaw, we should have a historical view. Many philosophers of the classical era were the embodiment of morality; but after the rise of modernism, after Nietzsche, some philosophers did not behave morally well as individuals, and the background here was the decline of religion. The roots of any morality can be attributed to religion, which is Christianity in Europe and May be Confucianism in China. Then when religion fades out, the binding force of morality becomes weaker and weaker.
For today's social relations and social operations, it is more important to have rules than morality, which is of course good and necessary, but now human life may need rules more. Today we must be particularly vigilant against the use of moralism as a cover, which is not only useless, but sometimes causes undue harm to individuals.
Philosophical arguments are of a certain violent nature, to grasp life, to grasp self, to grasp behavior; religion is not like this, "you obey me", suitable for people with weak minds; such people will be hurt by philosophy if they study philosophy. Philosophy is a powerful spiritual force that helps people to better maintain and control their spiritual selves.
Today, when philosophical ideas are incorporated into everyday life, many people feel like chicken soup. In fact, it is not the philosophers themselves who want to make chicken soup, but the people who need chicken soup, who are willing to read philosophy in the same way as chicken soup. For example, the Englishman who wrote "The Solace of Philosophy", Alain De Botton, which has been particularly popular in the past two years, has run more than a dozen "schools of life" around the world. There are many people listening to philosophy classes now, most of them looking for comfort, looking for chicken soup for the soul. I'm not against this, there's nothing wrong with this kind of mental massage. In fact, philosophers themselves also need chicken soup for the soul, and we also need psychological massage. There must be a bit of a philosophical element in a good chicken soup, and the problem now is that it is so indiscriminate that there are some gods nagging things, some "poisonous chicken soup".
Back to Heidegger, he still proposed a solution to the future technology world, he said to "calmly let it go", to let be, first of all, do not panic; both to say yes to this technological world, but also to say no. He didn't drive himself, but rode in the car his wife drove. He warned that modern people "want" too much and will no longer "don't" – the need to evoke an "don't" ability. He quotes Hölderlin's verse, "Wherever there is danger, there is life and salvation." "The closer we are to danger, the brighter the road into the rescue begins to flicker.
He advocated that we see danger with a brighter eye and question technology, because salvation is rooted in and developed in the essence of technology.
The source of the article is The Yangtze River Daily, September 25, 2018 Sanlian Life Weekly, No. 2, 2017, Liu Xiaofeng, Heidegger and China, etc