Heidegger and the Media

Reviews / Votes

"At last, a long overdue account of Heidegger's profound relevance for understanding contemporary media. Gunkel and Taylor shed powerful light onto the philosophical corners of media and cultural studies that more timid scholars have stubbornly failed to reach. Neither Heidegger studies nor media studies will remain the same after the impact of this immensely engaging theoretical tour de force!" Slavoj Zizek "Gunkel and Taylor reveal an unacknowledged dimension of Heidegger's media theory which contradicts the predominant understanding of his work. They argue that there is something to be found in Heidegger's thought which prevents one from succumbing to a widespread illusion - the illusion of the neutrality of technique, what McLuhan later called 'the current somnambulism'. Thus, a profoundly productive, critical dimension in Heidegger's theory becomes accessible which stands in harsh opposition to the 'somnambulism' that this philosopher himself performed in his utterly problematic personal, ideological existence. Gunkel and Taylor perspicuously show how Heidegger could have done better, had he more carefully listened to his own findings. And we? We definitely can: under the condition that we do." Robert Pfaller, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities