Heidegger and the Technocratic Warping of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Martin Heidegger notably argued that modern technology differs from technology of the past because it constitutes an ontological condition that is shaped by technological structures which determine our views of the world as being scientifically dependent on ordering. This study engages with Heidegger’s philosophy on technology to investigate the basis of the COVID pandemic response in liberal democratic contexts. It argues that attempts at controlling the virus represent a newfound technocratic effort to re-optimize human beings as resources and fungible raw materials based on their biological characteristics. In the trajectory of responding to public health crises, governments carried out tech-aided restrictions and policies that produced (and will continue to produce) adverse outcomes for large portions of society that will likely end up surpassing the virus in total hazard ratio.