MARTIN HEIDEGGER’S THOUGHT ON TECHNOLOGY AND THE 21ST-CENTURY NIGERIAN SOCIETY: A HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH

One of the burning philosophical burning issues in the twenty-first century is technology. Within the Nigerian context, advancement in technology has greater influence both negatively and positively on the social transformation, cultural identity, moral consciousness and the political and economic structures. Using hermeneutical approach, this paper interprets the thought of Martin Heidegger on technology, mainly as expressed in The Question Concerning Technology, to grill the meaning, essence, and implications of technology to the Nigerian society. This paper argues that the notion of Gestell (enframing) in the philosophy of technology of Heidegger offers a new perspective to comprehending the capability of modern technology to reveal Being and to conceal it through objectification and instrumentalization; how modern technology informs human existence, thereby revealing both its strengths and weaknesses. Bringing this insight of Heidegger into the Nigerian society, this paper discloses the tension between technological progress and authentic human development, since Nigerian Society has surrendered to the technological mode of revealing which enframes human existence within economic, political, and digital systems. This paper concludes that there should be a new technological awareness in Nigeria that must have human dignity, cultural meaning, and ethical responsibility at the hub of innovation.