Turning from the Margins: Discoursing Heidegger at the End of Life as We Know It

Abstract

The essay discusses Heidegger’s almost mystical understanding of the Turning after the era of the forgetfulness of Being and his warning of the danger of Western technology. Critically exploring Heidegger’s conception of this danger, the essay proposes that the danger of Western technology can be creatively engaged by the rationalities that were marginalized by its propagation. The essay shows that the “less developed” nations still comprehend the world according to the rationalities marginalized by the Westernization of the world, and these rationalities bear with them the possibility of bringing the dominant world rationality to a more rational and creative way of being in the world. It posits that the turning that Heidegger envisions will emerge from the discourse between dominant rationalities caught in their forgetfulness of Being and the marginalized rationalities that bear a level of naivete from traditional ways of being in the world. From this discourse will emerge a second naivete which will bring about a more creative being in the world.