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Toward A Shift in Thinking: Calculative vs. Meditative Thinking

Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher who distinguished between two types of thinking: calculative thinking and meditative thinking. [1] Calculative thinking is more practical and technical, focusing on gathering and using information. [2] Meditative thinking requires more effort and considers the reasons and consequences of actions beyond just doing them. [3] Heidegger believed that meditative thinking is crucial to human nature and separates humans from other animals, and he feared that modern technological society was causing humans to neglect meditative thinking in favor of calculative thinking.

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357 views12 pages

Toward A Shift in Thinking: Calculative vs. Meditative Thinking

Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher who distinguished between two types of thinking: calculative thinking and meditative thinking. [1] Calculative thinking is more practical and technical, focusing on gathering and using information. [2] Meditative thinking requires more effort and considers the reasons and consequences of actions beyond just doing them. [3] Heidegger believed that meditative thinking is crucial to human nature and separates humans from other animals, and he feared that modern technological society was causing humans to neglect meditative thinking in favor of calculative thinking.

Uploaded by

Janella Victorino
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Toward a shift in

thinking : calculative
vs. meditative thinking
Martin Heidegger
- a German philosopher born in 1889, was a complex
writer and thinker with an extremely non-traditional view
on philosophy, especially involving concepts of thought.
2
Martin Heidegger
was Born in Messkirch, Germany, on September 22,
1889 and died in the same town on May 26, 1976. He
studied theology and then philosophy, the latter
under the philosopher, Edmund Husserl who
founded the method of philosophy known as
phenomenology, rooting philosophy in experience.
The idea, though, was not to make philosophy like
science which grounds itself in the idealized
schema of data of perception but to base
philosophy on the richness of human experience as
a whole, the experience of what Husserl called the
life-world.

3
According to Heidegger, there are two kinds of thought: calculative
and meditative.

⋄ Calculative thinking is the more technical kind of human


thought, in which people gather information and put it
together in order to put it to some specific use. Calculative
thinking is always in use with mankind, as it is necessary to the
more practical activities and motivations of life. It is the more
active aspect of human thought, concerned more with the
doing of a thing than of considering the possible consequences.

4
Meditative thinking, however, involves something much
deeper than practical calculation, and it takes much more
effort. Meditative thinking tells us why we should do or
should not do a thing, beyond the simple calculative process
of actually doing it.
However, meditative thinking is not limited to simply
coming up with reasons why to or not to do a thing,
according to Heidegger.

5
“
Anyone can follow the path of meditative
thinking in its own manner and within his own
limits.Why?Because man is thinking,that is,a
meditating being.Meditative thinking need by
no means be “high-flown”.

6
“
It is enough if we dwell on what lies close and
meditate on what is closest ; upon that
which concerns us,each one of us,here and
now ; here,on this patch of home ground ;
now,in the present hour of history.
(WebCT, 3)
7
It would seem on the surface that calculative
thinking is more important, since without it we
could not actually build a home, cure a disease, or
simply drive a car to a job. We could not go
through with any action without using calculation.

8
Compared to that, meditation seems to be nothing but
aimless thought. However, Heidegger considers meditative
thinking to perhaps be even more crucial. He considers
meditative thought to be the cornerstone of human nature
and the primary aspect that makes us human and separates
us from other animals. We think meditatively, therefore we
are human.

9
He does not consider human nature to be inherent though.
He believes human nature can change, and that it is in the
process of changing to exclude meditative thought. It is this
potential loss of the meditative aspect of human nature for
which he fears and this is the main focus for The Memorial
Address.

10
The technological world of today, as much as in Heidegger's time,
grants far too much importance to calculative thought, and causes
man to ignore meditative thought as "worthless for dealing with
current business." One must "persevere meditation", because it
"requires greater effort" than calculative thinking, but in the
modern world it is unnecessary and unprofitable. For the same
reason that some might go to a vocational school rather than a
liberal arts college-to avoid taking any classes not absolutely
necessary in their chosen career-modern man tends more toward
calculative thinking to the exclusion of the meditative to his own
ruin.
12

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