History, economics and development: A critical Heideggerian exploration

Abstract

This thesis seeks to articulate a phenomenological hermeneutical approach to the subject of international development. It argues that Heidegger's analytic of the human situation, and in particular of being-historical, allows us to understand development neither as the operationalization of technical expertise by the developed for the underdeveloped, nor as a form of economic or cultural imperialism requiring resistance, but rather as a way that meaning is communicated and contested. The aporias and contradictions found in contemporary development are examined through their origins in 18th- and 19th-century conceptions of history, economics and the human situation. The early Heidegger's response to the historicism and positivism of his predecessors is examined in detail, as is his methodological notion of formal indication, in order to suggest how the concept of development might be rethought in a way that accords with our historicalness.