Technology as a Way of Revealing
The Question Concerning Technology – by Martin
Heidegger; discusses the essence of technology;
originally published in 1954, in Vorträge und Aufsätze.
- comprehensive attempt to interrogate the idea of
technology in order to gain an understanding of
the essence of the thing, rather than merely
understanding it as an instrument or a means.
Martin Heidegger – German philosopher who is best
known for contributions to phenomenology,
hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is often considered
to be among the most important and influential
philosophers of the 20th century
- widely acknowledged German philosopher of the
20th century whose focus is on ontology of the
study of ‘being’ or dasein (in German).
- Continental tradition of philosophy; joined the
Nazi Part (NSDAP); stern opposition to
positivism and technological world domination;
philosophical works are often described as
complicated
- initially developed the themes in the text in the
lecture "The Framework" ("Das Gestell"), first
presented on December 1, 1949, in Bremen.
"The Framework" was presented as the second
of four lectures, collectively called "Insight into
what is." The other lectures were titled "The
Thing" ("Das Ding"), "The Danger" ("Die
Gefahr"), and "The Turning" ("Die Kehre").
Essence of Technology – asked so as to “prepare a
free relationship to it”; relationship will be free if it opens
our human existence to it; questioning uncovers the
questioned in its (true) essence as it is; enabling it to be
“experienced within its own bounds” by seeking “the true
by way of the correct”.
- Akin to the Aristotelian way of advancing ““from
what is more obscure by nature, but clearer to
us, towards what is more clear and more
knowable by nature.”
- “The essence of a thing is considered to be what
the thing is”.
Definitions of Technology – “To posit ends and procure
and utilize the means to them is a human activity”
1. Technology is a means to an end. – treats
technology as an instrument to achieve a purpose or
end; instrumental definition
2. Technology is a human activity. – treats technology
as part of our daily activities of the human person which
is to invent technology; anthropological definition
Means – can be seen as that through and by which an
end is effected; can also be seen as a cause; “The end
in keeping with which the kind of means to be used is
determined is also considered a cause.”
Causality – conceptualization of instrumentality as
means and ends leads the question further suggests that
“wherever ends are pursued and means are employed,
wherever instrumentality reigns, there reigns causality.”
Traditional “Four Causes”
Causa Materialis – the material or the matter
out of which something is made
Causa Formalis – the form, the shape into
which the material enters
Causa Finalis – the end, in relation to which
[the thing] required is determined as to its form and
matter
Causa Efficiens – which brings about the effect
that is the finished [thing]
Silver Chalice – Heidegger’s example, indebted to the
silver from which it is made, the idea of how it should
look when finished, the end which limits the possible
meanings and uses to a single way of being, and finally
the craftsman who “considers carefully and gathers
together the three aforementioned way of being
responsible and indebted.”
Poiesis – act of bringing something out of concealment;
when the four causes work together to create something
into appearance; can be represented by the Greek word
aletheia, which in English is translated as "truth".
Aletheia – unclosedness; unconcealedness; disclosure;
truth; has everything to do with the essence of
technology because technology is a means of revealing
the truth
Gestell – name to the essence of modern technology as
a sort of enframing
Enframing – means the gathering together of that
setting-upon that sets upon man, i.e., challenges him
forth, to reveal the real, in the mode of ordering, as
standing-reserve; means that way of revealing that holds
sway in the essence of modern technology and that it is
itself not technological.
- This metaphorical term of Heidegger connotes
that modern technology put nature into a box
through scientific knowledge akin to two ways of
looking at the world; calculative thinking and
meditative thinking.
Calculative Thinking – humans desire to put an order
to nature to better understand and control it
Meditative Thinking – humans allow nature to reveal
itself to them without the use of force or violence
Threat of Technology – is the essence because "the
rule of enframing threatens man with the possibility that
it could be denied to him to enter into a more original
revealing and hence to experience the call of a more
primal truth."
Modern Technology – differs from poiesis from the fact
that it "is based on modern physics as an exact science";
The is not bringing-forth, but rather challenging-forth;
places humans in standing-reserve
Challenging-forth – conceals the process of bringing-
forth, which means that truth itself is concealed and no
longer unrevealed.
- Heidegger claimed that ancient and modern
technology are revealing. However, modern
technology is revealing not in the sense of
