海德格尔与计算机——兼论当代哲学与技术的理想关系

Heidegger and Computer:On the Ideal Relation between Contemporary Philosophy and Technological Praxis

一般认为,现代哲学与技术实践是分离的,这种未经反思的信念之所以为人接受,原因在于哲学总是作为技术实践的背景而存在。人们只有在技术难题无法通过技术手段克服时,才有可能去反思它背后的哲学假设。计算机与哲学的距离似乎是最遥远的,然而潜藏在计算机科学和技术深处的是传统的哲学信念——世界的可表征性和主客的二元分立。当科学家们想要弄清知识表征难题的根源时,传统的哲学信念才开始得到严肃反思和摒弃。海德格尔凭借他对传统哲学的深刻批判而进入到计算机领域中。在海德格尔式的设计进路中,最具代表性的工作是:存在主义设计、指示表征设计、具身交互设计。它们说明,哲学不只是技术实践的批判者和局外人,还可以成为参与者和推动者。

It is generally regarded as true that there is a huge gap between modern philosophy and technological praxis.This unreflected belief is accepted by most people,because philosophy always exists as the background of technological praxis and the way that it plays its role is to let itself be overlooked.Only when the technological problems cannot be solved by technological means can the philosophical assumptions behind the technology be reflected on.The distance seems to be farthest between computer science and philosophy,but the belief hidden in the science and technology of computer comes from traditional philosophy,i.e.the representationality of the world and the dualism of subject and object.When scientists try to figure out why they have failed to solve the problem of knowledge representation,the traditional philosophical assumptions begin to be seriously reflected on and abandoned.Therefore,Martin Heidegger,who had presented us with a thorough critique of traditional philosophy,has been introduced into the area of computer science. The most typical works which apply the insights of Heidegger are ontological design,deictic representation and embodied interaction.Ontological design was put forward by Terry Winograd.Enlightened by another philosopher Hubert Dreyfus,he found that computer science is based entirely on the rationalistic tradition,which claims that the world consists of a set of meaningless facts and these objective facts are independent of any subject.The inevitable slowdown in computer science led Winograd to move away from the unexamined rationalistic orientation and take Heidegger＇s ontology as the foundation of the new design approach.The practical everyday notions of Heidegger,such as thrownness,readiness-to-hand,breakdown and so on,are all applied in his design approach. The notion of deictic representation is the core of design practice of Philip Agre,and it comes directly from Heidegger＇s analysis of everyday intentionality.Deictic intentionality corresponds to ready-to-hand and objective intentionality corresponds to present-at-hand.Deictic intentionality implies a deictic ontology,and objective intentionality implies an objective ontology.Classical AI insists on the objective ontology and holds that entities can be defined without reference to any agent＇s activities.In contrast,Agre holds that each entity should be defined only in indexical and functional terms,in other words,each entity cannot be defined without reference to any agent＇s activities.Pengi is a program designed to illustrate the notion of deictic representation.Its success not only overcomes to a certain degree the mystery around the anti-representationalism of Heidegger,but also demonstrates that the unity of philosophy and technological praxis is possible. Tangible computing and social computing,two current research directions in Human-Computer Interaction（HCI）,are regarded as two different areas of research usually.But according to Paul Dourish,the same idea that underlies each of them is embodiment,i.e.the common way in which human being encounters reality in the everyday world.So tangible computing and social computing are in fact two different aspects of embodied interaction.Though embodied interaction is the future stage of HCI,embodiment is the primary concern of phenomenology.Therefore,designers in HCI can create the approach to embodied interaction depending on phenomenology,especially Heidegger＇s phenomenology.Moreover,phenomenology can help to provide a common vocabulary and conceptual apparatus,e.g.present-at-hand,ready-to-hand,embodiment,and a set of principles that shape the design of embodied interaction. The Heideggerian approach to the design of computer systems is not at the center of the discourse about computers and their use.But the work described here represents a beginning.With these three pieces of work the philosophy covert in the technological praxis is uncovered gradually,and the relation between philosophy and technology will be closer and opener.The future designer should be both a philosopher and a technical practicer.However,as far as the truth pursued by philosophers is unspeakable and implicit,there should be necessary tensility between philosophy and technology.