HUMAN FLUORISHING

Technology as a Mode of Revealing

1. discuss what technology reveals

2. examine technology and its role in
human flourishing
3. explain the role of art in a
technological world
Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976) was a 20th
Century German philosopher. He was one of
the most original and important philosophers
of the 20th Century, but also one of the most
controversial. His best known book, "Being
and Time", although notoriously difficult, is
generally considered to be one of the most
important philosophical works of the 20th
Century. In “The Question Concerning
Technology ”,  Martin Heidegger discusses the
essence of technology.
 Martin Heidegger
.
What is technology?
 What is Technology?
a. instrumental – a means to an end
b. anthropological – a human activity

• definition is correct but not necessarily true

• the true can be pursued through the correct
• the experience and understanding of what is
correct lead us to what is true
• by experiencing and understanding
technology we discover the truth about it
 Human Flourishing in Science and
Technology
“The poetic roots of technology have been
obscured by mechanisation that has
compelled us to harness nature’s energy into
an accumulated heterogeneous reserve that
conceals the true nature of things. The
solution is to question and confront
technology through its forgotten roots in the
arts.”
E4
The Question Concerning Technology

experience the technological within its own bounds

opens human existence to the essence of technology

prepare a free relationship to it

questioning builds a way (thinking)

 our technological relationship with nature was
one of steward but now is one of both master
and slave

the purpose of questioning technology therefore

is therefore to break the chains of technology
and be free, not in the absence of technology
but through a better understanding of its
essence and meaning
The essence of technology is by no
means anything technological.
E3
We can use technical devices, and yet
with the proper use also keep
ourselves so free of them, that we
may let go of them anytime....We
can affirm the unavoidable use of
technical devices and also deny
them the right to dominate us, and
so to warp, confuse and lay waste
our nature........
Technology is no mere means, it is a way
of revealing (truth).
“techne” – belongs to bringing forth, to
poiesis
technology is something poetic
technology is poiesis
technology is a mode of aletheia (truth)
Ex. cellphone/internet (online vs personal)
 Modern Technology as Poiesis?
the revealing that rules in modern
technology is:
• a challenging which puts to nature the
unreasonable demand that it supply
energy which can be extracted and
stored as such
• has the character of setting upon; in the
sense of a challenging-forth
 old windmill vs modern machine
Its sails do indeed turn in the wind,
they are left entirely to the wind’s
blowing. But the windmill does
not unlock energy from the air
currents in order to store it.
 in this way we are challenged by
modern technology to approach
nature as an object of research, to
reveal or to order the real as
standing reserve
E2

Example: Mining
 Enframing: Way of Revealing in the
Modern World
Enframing is the essence of modern
technology;
that which reveals the real through
ordering as standing reserve.
The poetry that is found in nature can
no, longer be easily appreciated
when nature is enframed.
 THREFORE........
Humans are challenged forth
(compelled) by enframing to reveal the
real in a seemingly deterministic way
(destining) that holds complete sway
over us.
Enframing conceals the revealing which
in the sense of poiesis, lets what
presences come forth into appearance.
Everything depends on our ability and
willingness to cast a critical eye over
the “essential unfolding of
technology”.

So long as we represent technology as

an instrument, we remain transfixed
in the will to master it.
We should let things show themselves in their
own way and not see them in advance
through a technical and theoretical lens.

Questioning builds a way, When meditatively

looking at technology , one will begin to
question its significance in his or her life
more than in the instrumental use.
Activity:
Reflect upon the discovery that you presented
earlier. What kind of revealing does this
technology do? Ground your answer from the
concepts learned in this chapter.