Congratulations to Taylor Green on his PhD thesis defense! His thesis is entitled “Technological Modernity: A Study of Hegel and Heidegger on the Mastery of Nature”.
Taylor’s dissertation examines Hegel and Heidegger on their relationship to technology and its predecessor, the early modern mastery of nature project. The goal of this study is to reveal our often-unexamined relationship to technology in modernity. Heidegger introduces a new concept to come to terms with technology, the notion of Enframing [Ge-stell], which is not aligned with the views of the early modern political theorists. Heidegger accuses his German predecessor Hegel of propelling forward the mastery of nature project, by arguing that subjectivity does not unify with substance in the dialectic as Hegel intended.
This dissertation has two primary contributions: first, it investigates authentically Hegel’s position, as Hegel understood his own philosophy, on the mastery of nature, and second, it uncovers why Heidegger criticizes Hegel’s progress of history to originate the concept of global technology. This study argues that, in part, Heidegger’s concept of Enframing is derived from a criticism of Hegel and that recovering Hegel’s thoughts on the early modern project reveals a temporal temperance on unfettered subjectivity. This aspect of Hegel counters Heidegger. This project concludes with a commentary on the legacy of this debate in political thought, which helps us understand many contemporary issues of technology and politics today.
Taylor is currently teaching a course on this research entitled “Democracy and Technology” at the University of Victoria.