The question concerning

technology

Martin Heidegger
http://www.universitethomiste.com/Images/heidegger.jpg
 Brief background
• Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
• Born in Baden, educated at Freiburg in the
phenomenological tradition of Husserl.
• Became privatdozent at Freiburg in 1915
• Professor at Marburg in 1923
• Professor at Freiburg in 1928
• 1933: Openly positioned himself in favour
of the Fuhrer (Hitler)
 What is technology
– Provides the anthropological and
instrumental definition
• Technology is a means to an end (I.E.
Developed with a purpose to solving something)
• Is a human tool
 The essence of technology
• “that which pervades every tree, as tree,
is not itself a tree that can be
encountered among all the other trees.
Likewise, the essence of technology is
by no means anything technological.”
What we have taken as granted is
what Heidegger is challenging
– We have grown to not take notice of certain
aspects of the technologies we use and in
doing so, we miss out on the ‘essence’
– “In giving ourselves to thinking we do
something which is on the one level quite an
ordinary activity but at another level subverts
much of what we take to be ordinary, it leads
us to the extra-ordinary, the extra-
mundane.”
 Poiesis
– Any activity that produces something that wasn’t
there before is poetry/poiesis
– I.E. Something has been made present through the
process of Occasioning
• Occasioning originates from the Greek word Aitia which
means ‘cause’
• The notion of bringing-forth
– “Occasioning has to do with the presencing of that which at
any given time comes to appearance in bringing-forth”
• Through occasioning and Bringing-forth, a new definition
of technology emerges and that is “a way of revealing the
world we live in”
 Poiesis (2)
– The concept of Physis (nature)
• “The bursting of a blossom into bloom”
– The concept of Techne (craftsmanship)
• The difference between Human techne and
physis techne
 Aletheia
– Definition: Un-concealing
• When Heidegger speaks of “truth” this is what he is talking
about; the un-concealing of the essence
– We do not have full control over aletheia; we simply
respond to it.
“Technology is a mode of revealing. Technology
comes to presence in the realm where
revealing and un-concealment take place,
where aletheia, truth, happens”
Middle section of Heidegger
– Emphasis placed on the manner in which modern technology
reveals
– Modern technology does not look to nature for its resources,
but looks to manipulate nature, with scientists at the forefront
– Heidegger explicitly states he is not like other’s and does not
resent the development of technology (“there is no demonry
of technology”), but he wants to find what is different about
modern technology.
– En-framing
• Limits us to “reveal the real in the mode of ordering, as standing-
reserve”
• The hegemonic force at the heart of the essence of technology
• Characterised as a manner of revealing which destines.
 End section of Heidegger
• “…since we are always and ever beings
who reveal, and given that there is only
one way for us to reveal, our attempts to
grasp that which allows us to reveal can
only ever be subsequent to its actual
appearance as the precursor to our
activities or thoughts (O’Brien, 2004)”
 His proposed answer:

• “Here and now and in little things, that we may foster the
saving power in its increase. This includes holding before
our eyes the extreme danger.”
• “threatens it [revealing] with the possibility that all revealing
will be consumed in ordering and that everything will
present itself only in the unconcealedness of standing-
reserve. Human activity can never directly counter this
danger. Human achievement alone can never banish it.
But human reflection can ponder the fact that all saving
power must be of a higher essence than what is
endangered (essence of technology), though at the same
time kindred to it”