The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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.

For anyone interested in the philosophy of science and technology these essays are essential reading. Heidegger's observations are just as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. In addition to the title essay, "The Age of the World Picture" and "Science and Reflection" are both great essays with rich insights.

Yes, Heidegger is difficult. Heidegger is always difficult. But it is worth trudging through.

For those seriously attempting to understand Heidegger's essays this is a very helpful edition; although I do not know German, Levitt really seems to understand both Heidegger and the nuances of the German language. His notes (while not necessarily clearer than Heidegger) help the English speaker get into the nuances lost in translation which is of utmost importance.

The Heideggerians love everything the man has written. I have no doubt they'll feel similar adoration regarding this volume, which contains several essays. I'm somewhat less receptive largely due to the fact his central premise results in a suspension of noncontradiction and, often, reason - and am of the opinion that the Heidegger corpus is glutted with unfinished (e.g. Being and Time most obviously) and often inscrutable works of questionable value (On the Way to Language, and What Is Called Thinking?).

In my estimation, after his quite lucid Introduction to Metaphysics (Nota Bene), and the magnificent Poetry, Language, Thought (Perennial Classics) and immensely readable (though it's tough to say accurate) volumes on Nietzsche, this is one of Heidegger's more interesting books, even if 2(5) essays border on filler. I don't particularly like the translation though, because, while accurate, the translator, Lovitt, seeks to retain too much of Heidegger's excessive neologism at the expense of readable prose and employs a stilted, overly literal translation style. I removed a star for that. I don't think each neologism merits half a page of footnotes. Heidegger is ungodly difficult to translate (as are most German philosophers after Kant) but the translator barely even follows conventions and uses odd choices of diction e.g. "As the essencing of Technology, Enframing endures. Does Enframing hold sway at all in the sense of granting?" (31)

There are five essays. The one I found the most interesting was the eponymous one where Heidegger talked about the essence of technology versus instrumentally as we generally do. His style is verbose, full of neologisms and a bit cloying but his overrall points are fairly solid even if others, like Spengler, had more precise (and better written) critiques. "The Turning" essentially continues the first essay and goes further into Enframing and Technology. "The Word of Nietzsche" is horribly out of place in this volume, but is a good essay that should be read in the context of Nietzsche: Vols. 3 and 4 (Vol. 3: The Will to Power as Knowledge and as Metaphysics; Vol. 4: Nihilism). It's probably the only essay in the volume that will make sense if you haven't read Heidegger before so I'd recommend reading Introduction to Metaphysics (Nota Bene) beforehand. "The Age of the World Picture" is a fairly mediocre essay where Heidegger talks in fairly broad terms about science and how it's affected metaphysics (his metaphysics, to be precise). "Science and Reflection" examines the phrase "Science is the Theory of the Real". At times sophistic in its abuse of etymology over reason, it's largely similar to the previous essay, and thinly reasoned. Mercifully, it's as thin on page count as it is on reasoning.

Limited recommendation.

Primarily recommended for those with any interest in technology and familiar with Continental philosophy. Spengler's somewhat similar Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life is substantially more profound, but Heidegger is much more widely read. Be sure to read this Heidegger volume before reading Dreyfus, Stiegler, et al too. Nietzscheans will also find the summary essay of interest. And, of course, the Heideggerians that don't already own this will obviously enjoy it.