The Good Sense of the Modern: Revisiting Heidegger’s Social Ontology

Abstract

By the term social ontology I mean to argue Heidegger's definition of the social existence of the self. In this paper I will look at Dasein as an engaged modern self, located in its context and history within the specifics of self's embeddeness. The good sense of the modern is the manifold ways in which dignified human flourishing can be imagined, which, as Charles Taylor points out, is the mainstay of modernity as a condition of being human. Dignified human flourishing upon the planet, amidst all its beings, and without obstructing the open space that humanity nurtures for the circulation of manifold meanings of realities, should mean that technological modernity in its emerging total shape cannot sustain the good sense of the modern. Technologically supported human flourishing, concretized through the international market system of overproduction and overconsumption, is a definitive denial of the good sense of the modern. The paper will attempt to retrace some of the ethical, spiritual and innate human qualities whereby we can reimagine and re-enchant modern identity amidst an overwhelming Technological Modernity. Modernity is not to be rejected but its good, wholesome and meaningful sense is to be interpretively appropriated. I will elucidate the notion of the modern self from an engaged perspective, which is embedded in a social and cultural context and which is bound to manifest justice.



Author Information
Anoop George, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS Pilani) Goa Campus, India

Paper Information
Conference: ACERP2016
Stream: Philosophy - Philosophy and Technology

This paper is part of the ACERP2016 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon