Abstract
This paper examines medicine’s use of technology in a manner from a standpoint inspired by Heidegger’s thinking on technology. In the first part of the paper, I shall suggest an interpretation of Heidegger’s thinking on the topic, and attempt to show why he associates modern technology with danger. However, I shall also claim that there is little evidence that medicine’s appropriation of modern technology is dangerous in Heidegger’s sense, although there is no prima facie reason why it mightn’t be. The explanation for this, I claim, is ethical. There is an initial attraction to the thought that Heidegger’s thought echoes Kantian moral thinking, but I shall dismiss this. Instead, I shall suggest that the considerations that make modern technology dangerous for Heidegger are simply not in the character — the ethos — of medicine properly understood. This is because there is a distinction to be drawn between chronological and historical modernity, and that even up-to-date medicine, empowered by technology, retains in its ethos crucial aspects of a historically pre-modern understanding of technology. A large part of the latter half of the paper will be concerned with explaining the difference.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aristotle: 1955, On Coming-to-Be and Passing-Away. London: Heinemann
Borges, J.L.: 1998,. ‘Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote’, in: Fictions. London, pp. 42–51
Davidson D. (1963). Actions, Reasons and Causes. Journal of Philosophy 60(23):685–700
Galen: 1997: ‘To Thrasyboulos’, in: Selected Works. Oxford: Oxford Word’s Classics
Heidegger, M.: 1999a, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, in: Basic Writings. London: Routledge
Heidegger M.: 1999b, ‘What is Metaphysics?’ in: Pathmarks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Heidegger, M.: 1999c, ‘On the Essence of Truth’, in: Pathmarks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Heidegger, M.: 1999d, ‘Plato’s Doctrine of Truth’, in: Pathmarks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Heidegger, M.: 1999e, ‘Letter on “Humanism’, in: Pathmarks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Heidegger, M.: 1999f, ‘Building Dwelling Thinking’, in: Basic Writings. London: Routledge
Heidegger M. (1999g). Being and Time. Blackwell, Oxford
Heidegger M.: 1999h, ‘Modern Science, Metaphysics and Mathematics’, in: Basic Writings. London: Routledge
Heidegger, M.: 1999i, ‘On the Essence and Concept of physis in Aristotle’s Physics B, i’ in: Pathmarks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Heidegger M. (2000). Introduction to Metaphysics. Yale Nota Bene, New Haven
Heidegger, M.: 2001, ‘The Thing’, in: Poetry, Language, Thought. New York: Perennial Classics
Hodge J. (1995). Heidegger and Ethics. Routledge, London
Khong L. (2003). Actants and Enframing: Heidegger and Latour on Technology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 34(4):693–704
Lacoue-Labarthe P. (1990). Heidegger, Art and Politics. Blackwell, Oxford
Lyotard J.F. (1990). Heidegger and ‘the jews’, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Plato (1999). Symposium. Penguin, Harmondswoth
Schmidt D. (2001). On the Significance of Nature for the Question of Ethics. Research in Phenomenology 31(1):62–77
Williams, B.: 1999, ‘The Truth in Relativism’, in Moral Luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wolin R. (1990). The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger. Columbia University Press, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brassington, I. On Heidegger, medicine, and the modernity of modern medical technology. Med Health Care Philos 10, 185–195 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-006-9016-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-006-9016-4