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Martin Heidegger: Meditative Thinking

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Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher born in the late 19th century. He was a deep writer and thinker that many people saw as tough to understand. His notions on thought were abnormal, to say the least. He delivered his memorial address in 1955 in Germany. He gave a warning to humanity on the future of human thought and the influence that technology will have on it.
Heidegger claimed that we have two kinds of thought: calculative and meditative. Calculative thought is basically thinking about how we can best achieve an objective given certain conditions or a given situation. It is a very technical and even mechanical type of thinking. Thinking of how to receive the grade you want on a paper or the quickest way to drive to your mom’s house …show more content…

It seems that he believes technology/innovation may make life so simple that mankind will have no use for meditative thinking and it will cease to exist. I, along with an essay I found that was written by another student, disagree with this statement. It is tough to believe that meditative thinking will completely cease to exist as man’s nature is essentially meditative (Nemes). The author of this essay put it better than I ever could, saying that even if calculative thought for the masses took over, there would still be meditative thinkers out there. “What this means is that there will always be outcasts who will find their autochthony and therefore pursue meditative thought simply through the necessity of it, because they cannot find an anchor in mainstream calculative society. There are not permitted a place in calculative ‘herd’, which is how most people seem to find their meaning, therefore they must find their meaning elsewhere and are forced to mediate lest they lose their minds...The only way meditative thought could be entirely eradicated is if mankind as a species ceases entirely to cast some individuals out of the social collective.” …show more content…

Yes, Heidegger was mostly correct. His claims fit most. Humanity’s most fundamental type of thinking is being neglected and marginalized more and more by the kind of calculative thinking epitomized by modern science and technology by most. As stated by Nemes, those not in the calculative ‘herd’ are basically more in touch with their fundamental thinking (meditative) and find their meaning. I was not in the calculative herd and I found my meaning through technology. Heidegger was also correct in saying that mankind starts to focus on the one-dimensional type of thinking that is calculative thought, but that does not prove that meditative thought will cease to exist. I do not believe that the world will lose its meditative

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