Heidegger’s Question Concerning Technology: A Prolegomenon to Future Librarianship

By:

Following World War II, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger offered one of the most potent criticisms of technology and modern life. His nightmare is a world whose essence has been reduced to the functional equivalent of “a giant gasoline station, an energy source for modern technology and industry. This relation of man to the world [is] in principle a technical one . . . . [It is] altogether alien to former ages and histories.” For Heidegger, the problem is not technology itself, but the technical mode of thinking that has accompanied it. Such a viewpoint of the world is a useful paradigm to consider humanity’s relationship to information in the current environment.

While the published paper that this presentation is based upon applies Heidegger’s criticisms to the legal information environment, the criticisms are applicable to all kinds of information from diverse disciplines. The lecture will also review the appropriateness of applying Heidegger’s model, especially given his experience with Nazism. Finally, the presentation will consider the implications for libraries in the modern information environment.

Stream: Libraries

Paper: Heidegger’s Question Concerning Technology

Professor Callister received his JD from Cornell and his MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Besides being UMKC’s law library director, Callister is a tenured law faculty member and teaches Cyberlaw and Infosphere and Advanced Legal Research. His research includes the relationship of information environments to legal institutions and the rule of law. Callister was recently invited to contribute to an Aspatore Books series, "Inside the Minds: The Changing Role of Academic Librarianship." In fall of 2007, Callister served as keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the Arab Federation for Libraries and Information, held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he spoke on "The Question Concerning Libraries." A similar presentation, resulting in a publication, was made per invitation at a symposium at Berkeley’s law school. In September of 2006, Professor Callister received the Brenner Faculty Publishing Award for "Law's Box: Law, Jurisprudence and the Information Ecosphere."