Heidegger on Enframing, Science, and Reflection

In this session, we’ll discuss two short but influential essays by Martin Heidegger:

• The Question Concerning Technology
• Science and Reflection

Together, these essays ask: What happens to the world, and to us, when science and technology become the dominant ways reality is understood?

Heidegger is not asking whether technology is good or bad, nor is he calling for a rejection of science. Instead, he argues that modern technology and modern science shape how reality shows up for us. Training us to see nature, time, work, and even ourselves primarily as resources to be measured, optimized, and managed. He calls this way of seeing “enframing.”

In The Question Concerning Technology, Heidegger explores how modern technology differs from earlier forms of making and craft, and why its danger lies less in machines themselves than in the narrowing of how we understand meaning and value.

In Science and Reflection, he deepens this analysis by examining scientific thinking itself, suggesting that science succeeds precisely because it operates within a projected framework and that reflection begins when we become aware of those hidden assumptions.

Reading for this week (60 pages total):
Martin Heidegger:

• The Question Concerning Technology (33 pages)
• Science and Reflection (27 pages)

I will be reading the essay collection available here.
Free pdfs are available online if you search for them.

Rules for Our Group
1. Be Courteous
Respectful disagreement is totally acceptable; Condescension is not.
2. Be Concise
Keep comments brief, on topic, and allow space for others to join in.
3. Do the Reading
If you have not done the reading for the week you are welcome to attend and listen to the discussion, but out of respect for those who have read, you will not be permitted to participate in the discussion.

Finally, Please update your RSVP if you are no longer able to attend the event.

• inaccurate RSVPs make it difficult for coordinators to plan successful events
• inaccurate RSVPs prevent waitlisted individuals from attending

*Multiple no shows may result in losing RSVP privileges for future events.

For more info and FAQ on the group click here.

Looking forward to the discussion!
- Brent