ABSTRACT

Central to the later Heidegger’s thought are his corresponding critiques of technology and the will. Although his critique of technology has tended to receive more attention than his critique of the will, in fact these must be understood together. In modern times, according to Heidegger, human beings are essentially self-assertive, willful. The will is the historical determination of the essence of modern humanity. In fact, Heidegger claims that, in the epochs of modernity, the being of beings as such is revealed—in the form of extreme self-concealment and even abandonment—as what Nietzsche calls will to power and ultimately as the technological will to will. In illuminating the willful nature of technology, Heidegger hopes to facilitate a turn (Kehre) to a more proper relation to beings, which first and foremost entails a more proper relation to being itself (Sein selbst). This chapter endeavors to elucidate the problem of the will and the turn to Gelassenheit, a turn both called for and carried out in the at times turbulent development of Heidegger’s own path of thought.