Brad Elliott Stone, Ph.D, will deliver the Beck Lecture at Southwestern College on Monday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m., in Wroten Hall on the campus of Southwestern College.  The public is invited to attend and there is no admission charge.  

Stone is a professor of philosophy and the chair of African American studies at Loyola Marymount University.  The title of his lecture at Southwestern is “Curiositas Ex Machina: A Note on Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy of Technology.”

“Do you check your phone before going to sleep and check it again as soon as you wake up?  Do you place your trust and security in technological devices?  Are you on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter?  Do your skills of communication break down when your technological devices break down?  Can you even begin to imagine a world that is not saturated by technology and technological devices?  If you find these questions interesting and provocative, then Dr. Brad Stone's lecture is for you,” says Jacob Goodson, assistant professor of philosophy at Southwestern College. 

The main points of Heidegger's philosophy of technology are: 
•    Scientists study natural objects within the world and not objects that scientists, themselves, make -- hence technology is not an object of scientific study but an object a philosophical study. 
•    The philosophical study of technology leads to the conclusion that human beings need to maintain power over technology and not allow technology to have power over humanity.  
•    Natural scientists are needed in the modern technological world because they continually remind us of the value of natural objects, so that we do not make the improper judgment that technology has more power and value over natural objects.  

According to Stone, the lecture will explain Heidegger’s critiques of curiosity and machination as inauthentic possibilities of Dasein (Dasein is the German word for one’s presence in the world).

The Beck lectureship, funded by Paul V. Beck to explore topics relating to science and religion, is an annual event on campus and brings in theologians, scientists, and philosophers from across the nation.  

For more information about the Beck Lecture, call (620) 229-6059.