Papers by Michael Zimmerman
The Review of Politics, Dec 20, 2019
English Language Notes, Mar 1, 2017
A traje cto ry in physics is m ost broadly defined as "the path described by an object under the ... more A traje cto ry in physics is m ost broadly defined as "the path described by an object under the influence of a force." The concept is a com pelling one for addressing developments and crossings in the fast-developing environmental humanities. The concept of a "tra je cto ry" addresses not only the m ultiply-scaled influences and changes affectin g the earth and its human and non-human beings, but also alludes to the conceptual and cultural forces, objects and paths by means of w hich many humanists are choosing to describe, address, represent, and negotiate such changes.1 Trajectories can cross; they can diverge; they can also maintain their own distinctive paths. In this volume of ELN, we
A Companion to Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, ed. Richard Polt and Gregory Fried. Yale University Press., 2001
This paper describes Heidegger's version of the decline of the West, which I compare to versions ... more This paper describes Heidegger's version of the decline of the West, which I compare to versions offered by writers such as Oswald Spengler, who was indebted to Nietzsche's view of Western decline. According to Heidegger, his own account of the decline of the West avoids the metaphysical limitations that limited the approaches of others who took on this topic.
Society for UAP Studies, 2024
In July 1952 during two consecutive weekends, large numbers of UFOs overflew Washington, DC, one ... more In July 1952 during two consecutive weekends, large numbers of UFOs overflew Washington, DC, one the world's most protected airspaces. These events have often been read as a warning against the dangers posed by nuclear war. Today, artificial super intelligence (ASI) poses a significant threat to the human future. If so, why are there no squadrons of UFOs flying over Silicon Valley to warn us of that threat?
Society for UAP Studies, 2024
This well-written, provocative, and insightful book (UFH, for short) shows what can happen when a... more This well-written, provocative, and insightful book (UFH, for short) shows what can happen when an academic philosopher tackles the metaphysical, epistemological, perceptual, and cultural challenges posed by UFOs. Professor James D. Madden brings into the UFO conversation classical philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, modern thinkers like Nietzsche and Heidegger, contemporary philosophers of mind such as Andy Clark and David Chalmers, and literary theorist Timothy Morton. While providing a guided tour of different thinkers, eras, and conceptual frameworks, his narrative moves toward hyperobjects, control structures, modern technology, and the need/occasion for human transformation.
Heidegger, Authenticity and Modernity: Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume One, 2001
This essay was included with many others in the excellent two-volume Festschrift for Hubert Dreyf... more This essay was included with many others in the excellent two-volume Festschrift for Hubert Dreyfus that was edited by Jeff Maples and Mark Wrathall. Although written more than two decades old, I lik to think that my essay is still pertinent in our ever-more-fragmented era.
Heidegger-Jahrbuch, 2005
Heidegger worked out the major themes of his interpretation of Nietzsche in his lecture courses s... more Heidegger worked out the major themes of his interpretation of Nietzsche in his lecture courses starting in 1936, when he was still hopeful that Nietzsche could be read in a way consistent with what Heidegger regarded as the highest aims of National Socialism. Within a few years, however, he concluded that far from overcoming Western metaphysics, Nietzsche's philosophy brought to a culmination the notion that humankind is the clever animal bent on subjugating the entire planet.This is the English-language version of my essay "Die Entwicklung von Heideggers Nietzsche-Interpretation," also available on Academia.com. This is the English-language version of the paper that appeared in Heidegger-Jahrbuch, 2005, "Die Entwicklung von Heidegger's Nietzsche-Interpretation." I have just corrected some formatting errors that appeared in the first version of the English-language version that I posted here a few months ago.
From Phenomenology to Thought, Errancy and Desire, 1995
I regard this essay as one of the best I have written on Heidegger's thought. Because the essay a... more I regard this essay as one of the best I have written on Heidegger's thought. Because the essay appeared in a large anthology, readership has been very limited. The essay examines two lecture courses that Heidegger a few years before publicly embracing National Socialism. Both courses sought to distinguish between humans and animals. Human desire is not the same as animal drives. With a nod to Plato, Heidegger suggests that desire (eros) draws humankind to own itself as the clearing within which entities can reveal themselves in their intelligibility and in that sense "to be." .Historically, however, ontological desire declines into ontical craving for controlling and consuming entities in a futile effort to overcome the mortality bound up with the clearing that allows us to be more than animals In technological modernity, ontological openness for the self-showing of entities becomes so constricted,, that Dasein falls to the status of a monstrous half-human, half-animal hybrid struggling for power, security, and pleasure. Drawing on these ideas, the essay then examines the extent to which Lacanian psychoanalysis can shed light on how Heidegger's yearning for union with being could have led him to embrace National Socialism as somehow aligned with that yearning.
Heidegger-Jahrbuch 2, 2005
Heidegger worked out the major themes of his interpretation of Nietzsche in his lecture courses s... more Heidegger worked out the major themes of his interpretation of Nietzsche in his lecture courses starting in 1936, when he was still hopeful that Nietzsche could be read in a way consistent with what Heidegger regarded as the highest aims of National Socialism. Within a few years, however, he concluded that far from overcoming Western metaphysics, Nietzsche's philosophy brought to a culmination the notion that humankind is the clever animal bent on subjugating the entire planet.
Philosophy Today, 1979
Whereas Heidegger maintains that today's exploitation of nature results not from any human decisi... more Whereas Heidegger maintains that today's exploitation of nature results not from any human decision, but rather from a new way of disclosing things that shapes both capitalism and socialism. Marx maintains that such exploitation may be tempered as capitalism gives way to communist society, although the development of human self-development remains the goal of evolution.
International Philosophical Quarterly , 1989
I have retitled the heading for this paper, because the original title (which is retained) does n... more I have retitled the heading for this paper, because the original title (which is retained) does not indicate the topic, which is important in Heidegger studies. William Vallicella has argued that during the 1920s, Heidegger struggled to reconcile two different conceptions of Being.] On the one hand, Heidegger maintained that Being must always be understood as the Being that belongs to an entity; on the other hand, however, he insisted that Being must also be understood as the truth or disclosedness in light of which an entity can appear as an entity. The former concept portrays Being as intrinsic to entities, as the ousia that sustains and permeates them; the latter portrays Being as extrinsic to entities, as the aletheia in terms of which they are disclosed. According to Vallicella, the so-called "turn" in Heidegger's thought resulted from his decision to consign the ousia-Iogical understanding of Being to the realm of metaphysics, and to define Being exclusively in aletheia-Iogical terms. When oriented to the ousia-Iogical dimension of Being, Heidegger said that because Being is always the Being of entities, ontological knowledge could be grounded only if it were "read off" particular entities. Here, Being "belongs to" entities; Being refers to that by virtue of which entities "are." But when oriented to the aletheia-Iogical dimension of Being, Heidegger maintained that ontology is equivalent to phenomenology, i.e., the study of Being involves the study of the nonentity like event of appearing, manifesting, or truth in terms of which entities can be encountered as such. These two interpretations of Being, one of which leans toward a kind of "realism," the other of which leans toward a kind of "idealism," are not self-evidently compatible. According to Vallicella, Heidegger "solved" the incompatibility by an eliminative move. By the 1930s, he had concluded that the quest to understand the Being of entities (" Beingness " [Seiendheit]) was the task of metaphysics, which was blind to Being as such. The metaphysical, ousia-Iogical conception of Being was misguided because it conceived of Being as some sort of superior entity, be it Plato's eidos or Nietzsche's Will to Power. Heidegger's thought "turned" when he ceased being concerned with the Being of entities (including the Being of the ontologically-ontically distinctive entity, human Dasein) and became exclusively concerned with Being, understood as disclosedness, appearance, phenomenon, or truth. I offer a critical rejoinder to aspects of Vallicella's claim that Heidegger reduces Being to truth.
Encountering Alien Otherness, 2003
Published in 2003, this paper arose from research done for more than a decade on the "alien abduc... more Published in 2003, this paper arose from research done for more than a decade on the "alien abduction" phenomenon. During that time I worked closely with John E. Mack, the late Harvard psychiatrist who risked his reputation (and tenured position) in order to share findings of his work with people who sought his help in integrating their "abduction" experience. New York Times stories in 2017 have made study of UFOs and related phenomena legitimate in a way they have no been for decades. I welcome comments or suggestions from readers.
Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential may be the most important book in favor of transhumanism s... more Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential may be the most important book in favor of transhumanism since Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near (2005). It is well-organized, wellwritten, and insightful, remarkable in its scope, and the work of an author with outstanding credentials in finance and economics (former chief economist at General Motors, and former head of investments for Abu Dhabi). Ted Chu is clearly familiar with the movement and power of capital. If Kurzweil's book, that of an extraordinarily accomplished inventor, caught the attention of people in Silicon Valley, Chu's may have a similar effect in the industrial and financial worlds.
The Trumpeter, 2004
In addition to writing Contesting Earth 's Future (1994) and being general editor of Environmenta... more In addition to writing Contesting Earth 's Future (1994) and being general editor of Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology (fourth edition, 2004), he has published many articles in the area of environmental philosophy.
Geographical Review, 1987
Environmental Ethics, 1993
Recent disclosures regarding the relationship between Heidegger's thought and his own version of ... more Recent disclosures regarding the relationship between Heidegger's thought and his own version of National Socialism have led me to rethink my earlier efforts to portray Heidegger as a forerunner of deep ecology. His political problems have provided ammunition for critics, such as Murray Bookchin, who regard deep ecology as a reactionary movement. In this essay, I argue that, despite some similarities, Heidegger's thought and deep ecology are in many ways incompatible, in part because deep ecologists-in spite of their criticism of the ecologically destructive character of technological modernity-generally support a "progressive" idea of human evolution.
Professional Ethics, A Multidisciplinary Journal, 2003
In this essay, I approach architecture, ethics, and globalization from the perspective of postmod... more In this essay, I approach architecture, ethics, and globalization from the perspective of postmodern theory, which has both influenced and been influenced by architectural theory. In fact, architects were among the first to utilize the term "postmodernism." By "postmodern theory," I have in mind positions that on the one hand criticize Western ethnocentrism, metaphysical foundationalism, centered subjectivity, and the idea of progress, and on the other hand celebrate the Others who have allegedly been dominated and/or excluded by the practices and attitudes of Western colonialism. Multiculturalism is the best-known ethical and political trend that has been influenced by postmodern theory. My approach to architectural ethics in an age of globalization will be framed by multiculturalism, but will also provide the occasion for some critical reflection about multiculturalism and postmodern theory. I begin by examining how postmodern theory criticizes modernity and the globalization arising from it. Then, I offer a hypothetical example of the moral dilemmas facing an American architect who attempts to adhere to a postmodern multicultural moral framework, while responsible for designing and helping to oversee the construction of a complex in a southeast Asian city. As we will see, the American architect may bring with her concerns about multiple perspectives and about the oppressed Other that are not shared by her Asian clients. Indeed, they may find such concerns problematic, if not threatening. Finally, having already discussed how postmodern theory helps to contribute to the development of multiculturalism, I will explore how postmodern theory may impede moral activity within the multicultural framework. Global economic integration is taking place at the same moment that totalizing political narratives (whether modern ones from developed worlds or traditional ones from developing
Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture & Politics
To help build a sustainable economy, the environmental movement must shift its traditional anti-i... more To help build a sustainable economy, the environmental movement must shift its traditional anti-industrial focus and become pro-investment….
For several years, critics of environmentalism have charged that certain federal environmental re... more For several years, critics of environmentalism have charged that certain federal environmental regulations, which prevent development of private property, infringe on the "takings" clause of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which prohibits uncompensated governmental seizure of such property. Some of these critics, including Ron Arnold of the Wise Use Movement, go so far as to describe proponents of such regulations as "communists," or as irrational, natureworshipping "ecofascists." 1 The "radical" ecology that Arnold has in mind adheres to biocentrism or ecocentrism, according to which humankind is not a privileged species, but rather merely one member of the biotic community. Arnold wants to polarize public opinion: either one is a citizen loyal to the U.S. Constitution; or one is a radical ecologist favoring nature over humans, communal over private property, and either communism or ecofascism over individualism. Some environmentalists regard the takings issue as spurious, whereas others agree that it has some merit. Almost all environmentalists, however, claim that the charge of ecofascism is the ludicrous creation of anti-environmental corporations and extractive industries. Even though this evaluation may be accurate, I argue that the threat of ecofascism cannot be dismissed out of hand. True, ecofascism is unlikely to occur in the United States any time soon, but environmentalists need to be aware that ecofascism was a component of German National Socialism, and that even today neo-fascists and members of far right-wing groups in Europe and the United States put to dark uses concepts drawn from the environmental movement. Twenty years ago, far right-wing groups in Germany were already linking their anti-immigrationist platform to the mainstream concern about the environmental impacts of human population growth and population density. These days, even mainstream German politicians link immigration to environmental concerns, only now in the context of the renewal of anti-Semitism. 2 Far right-wing groups in the United States have begun to tie public concern about urban sprawl and environmental pollution to immigrants from countries that
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Papers by Michael Zimmerman