Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
You have thought about the essence of the human being for decades, which understanding did you gain?
The decisive experience of my thinking and that means at the same time for occidental philosophy that is, the contemplation on the history of occidental thought
showed me, that in contemporary thought
one question was never asked, that is, the question of Being.
This question is of importance, because in occidental thought
the essence of the human being is determined, in its relation to Being
and that it exists, in its correspondence to Being.
That means, the human being is this corresponding, this essence, that has language.
as distinguished, I think, from the Buddhist teachings,
Occidental thought makes an essential distinction, between human beings and other living things, plants and animals.
The human being is distinguished by its language, that means,
that it has a knowing relation to Being.
And this question of Being has in the present history of occidental thought not been asked.
Or, to speak more clearly
Being itself has been hidden from the human being.
And that is why now we have to ask this question
and to get an answer on what and who is the human being.
Do you think we should create a new fundamental attitude towards life, or should we should we deepen the present teachings of religion?
I think that through my answer to your first question I have already made clear that
a new way of thinking is necessary
It's especially necessary because the question cannot be asked by religion.
It’s also necessary to ask this question, because the Western relationship to entire world
is no longer transparent, but confused
partly because of the clearings of belief, church, through philosophy
through science and the strange fact that now in the modern world
science is regarded as if it were some form of religion
I will further clarify this sentence later on.
Why don’t you try to share your thoughts with the people via modern media such as radio and TV?
The task that is required of thinking today, as I understand it
is new in a way that requires a new method of thinking,
and this method can only be achieved in the immediate conversation from human being to human being, and by long practice
and exercise in a sense of a seeing in thinking.
That means that this way of thinking, at first, is only comprehensible to few people
But can through different aspects of education be communicated to others.
I will give you an example.
Today everyone knows how to use a radio and a television set
without understanding the physical laws governing it, without understanding the necessary methods and research of these laws
These methods, necessary for the research on these laws, in their substantial content, are understood only by five or six physicists.
And that’s how it is with this thinking.
At first, this thinking is so difficult that only few people can be educated in it
But that could lead to the misunderstanding, that these were extraordinary people.
But the truth is that every human being, as long as it is a thinking being, can accomplish this thinking.
But, in our present education system and according to our history
only few people will fulfill the requirement for this thinking.
Is there a meeting point of Technology and Philosophy?
To your question I would say ‘yes’, there is indeed a very essential relation.
It is given, in the emergence of modern technology from philosophy
It is in modern philosophy, that for the first time established the principle, that
only what I can clearly, that is, mathematically know, is real.
There is a very famous sentence by the German physician Max Planck, which says:
“Real is only the measurable”.
And this thought that reality is only accessible to the human being,
as long as it is measurable in the sense of mathematical physics;
this thought dominates all of technology
And in as much as it was thought first by Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy,
the relation of modern technology and philosophy becomes quite clear.