Human Flourishing in

Science and Technology

Technology as a mode of revealing
What does technology reveal?

The Question of Technology by Martin Heidegger

- urges us to question technology and see
beyond people’s common understanding of it.
Ancient doctrine

The essence of a thing is considered to be

what the thing is.
We ask the question about technology when we ask
what it is.
- A means to an end
- A human activity
The manufacture and utilization of equipment,
tools, and machines, the manufactured and used
things themselves, and the needs and ends that
they serve, all belong to what technology is.
Technology is instrumental.
Correct but not true. The “true” entails so much
more meaning and significance.
However, Heidegger asserted that the true can
be pursued through the correct. In other words,
the experience and understanding of what is
correct lead us to what is true.
Heidegger urged people to envision technology as a
mode of revealing as it shows so much more about
the human person and the world.
Technology is a way of bringing forth (poeisis-to
make).
By considering technology as a mode of revealing,
then truth is brought forth.
For example, the truth that the Earth is weeping
could be revealed by the information and data
taken by modern devices.

Whatever truth is uncovered, it will be something

more meaningful and significant than the superficial
or practical use of technology.
Does the idea that technology is poeisis apply to
modern technology?
Modern technology
- challenges forth
- very aggressive in its activity
Modern technology may also be a mode of
revealing but not as the harmonious bringing forth
that is described in Heidegger’s thesis of technology
as poeisis.
Modern technology challenges nature and
demands of it resources that are, most of the
time, forcibly extracted for human consumption
and storage.
 - sets or brings about a setting upon
Mining is an example of modern technology
that challenges forth and brings about the
setting upon of land. It extracts minerals from
the earth and forcefully assigns the land as a
means to fulfill the never-ending demands of
people.
- expedites unconcealment of nature
- stores that which extracted from nature
With modern technology, revealing never
comes to an end. The revealing always happens
on our own terms as everything is on demand.
Information at our fingertips, food harvested
even out of season, gravity defied to fly off to
space –such is the capacity of the human
person.
We no longer need to work with the rhythms of
nature because we have learned to control it.
We order nature, and extract, process, make
ready for consumption, and store what we have
forced it to reveal.
Modern Technology
- age of switches
- standing-reserve
- stockpiling for its own sake
This observation is manifest in the mechanization
and digitization of many aspects of our life –from
agriculture to communications and transportation,
among many others.
Questioning as the piety of thought
For Heidegger, piety means obedience and
submission. In addressing what technology has
brought forth, one cannot help but be
submissive to what his thoughts and reflections
elicit.
Whatever understanding is found becomes
significant because it is evoked by questioning
who or what we essentially are in the world.

It is when we start questioning that we submit

ourselves to our thoughts.
Enframing
- way of revealing in modern technology
In simpler terms, it is as if nature is put in a box
or in a frame so that it can be better understood
and controlled according to people’s desires.
- views nature as orderable and calculable
system of information
- conceals poeisis
Human person swallowed by technology
Though it is true that the individual takes part in
the revealing of nature, limits must still be
recognized.
If we allow ourselves to get swallowed by
modern technology, we lose the essence of who
we are as beings in this world.
If we are constantly plugged online and no longer
have the capacity for authentic personal
encounters, then we are truly swallowed by
technology.
If we cannot let go of the conveniences and profits
brought about by processes and industries that
pollute the environment and cause climate change,
then technology has consumed our humanity.
“But where danger is, grows the saving power
also.”-Holderlin
The saving power lies in the essence of
technology which according to Heidegger is
nothing technological. The essence of
technology is not found in the instrumentality
and function of machines constructed, but in
the significance such technology unfolds.
He also expressed that the various problems
brought about by human’s dependence on
technology cannot be simply resolved by
refusing technology altogether.
Art as a way out of enframing
Enframing, as the mode of revealing in modern
technology, tends to conceal poesis. The poetry
that is found in nature can no longer be easily
appreciated when nature is enframed.
For example, the watermill is primitive
compared to the hydropower plant. People no
longer realize how the watermill is more in tune
with the rhythms of nature.
Heidegger proposes art as a way out of this
enframing. With art, we are better able to see
the poetic in nature in reality. It leads us away
from calculative thinking and towards
meditative thinking.
When meditatively looking at technology, one
will begin to question its significance in his life
more than in its instrumental use.
Activity
Pick a work of art that you feel best reveals
technology. Reflect and discuss among
yourselves how the artwork describes and
reveals technology. Ground your discussion
from the concepts learned. Present it to the
class.