An experiment in writing
Making sense of Heidegger
Last year I started a PhD. The current working title of my thesis is “The possibility of understanding the Being of Artificial Intelligence: A Heideggerian perspective”. When I explain this to people (other students or normal people) who are not working on Heidegger, I’m usually faced with a cross between a polite smile and a grimace. I’ll then change the subject and that’s because working with Heidegger is like working in a vortex; Heidegger’s thinking develops by questioning philosophy’s most basic assumptions, often using words in unusual and confusing ways, and good explanations can involve stepping very far back. I (and they) apparently don’t have the patience for this.
However, being able to explain what I am working on, both to “normal people” and to Heidegger people, is something I want to be able to do. I’m planning to use Substack to publish (probably initially very short) posts about things I’m thinking through. I’ll aim to write in such a way that it does not require a background in Heidegger studies to make sense of it. I’m hoping to have some interaction both from people who do not know Heidegger, but also from those working with Heidegger (if I can find them). I’ll see how it goes.
In the short term I’ll probably be posting about Heidegger and animals. What this has to do with Artificial Intelligence will hopefully become clear as I progress.
