“What is called thinking” by Heidegger
This seems a good introduction to the book and to discussing thinking in our era
Short Extract from the article
Heidegger refers to Nietzsche’s diagnosis of our age as a time of nihilism: “The wasteland grows.” If it is Being that most calls for thought, what most calls to be thought about in our age is the forgetting or withdrawal of Being. And it is due to the withdrawal of Being that we are still not thinking. In contrast to Hegel’s notion of history, Heidegger’s is a history wherein we find ourselves increasingly fallen from and more distant from Being. Being withdraws in our technological age as the experience of thinking is reduced to calculative rationality. “Thinking” has become the experience of using rationality as a device to operate on a world of things already reified into a network of ends. In our age, Heidegger (1968) will go on to argue, ratio has trumped legein. The thoughtfulness of calculative rationality threatens to obliterate the possibility for being-thoughtful.
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How my heart sings 
He did have some interesting ideas despite his weird attraction towards the Nazis.In itself that is interresting
Probably way over my head. I took two classes in college and thought I could skip attendance for both. One was Psych Tests and Measurements, which was mostly multiple choice, and I got a “B”. But the other was Existential Phenomenological Psychology. When I showed up for the exam, there was a single essay question. I quickly realized I was outmaneuvered, and turned in a blank paper. Oh well. Such is existence.
But following my instincts, I sense that the subject here might be the difference between what I’ve heard called “mindfulness” versus distraction.
I think in Zen meditation you observe yourself thinking, but you don’t think about it. Also, Alan Watts said that anything said about Zen is termed “Zen trash”, so don’t put any stock in what I say about it. 🙂
I’m glad you found it interesting.Being thoughtful and calculative rationality are interesting poles.He wrote that in 1961… and it’s become more extreme.
Will people have time to be thoughtful in the near future when they sleep with smartphones under the pillow?
An interesting introduction to the subject. I don’t even remember how I got there, but this led me somehow to an article on ‘new existentialism’ which seems to me a renewal of some of the original questions and studies that were associated with existentialism when I was a beginning student.