Summary
The question concerning technology is asked, as Heidegger notes, “so as to prepare a free relationship to it”.Heidegger 1977, p. 3. The relationship will be free “if it opens our human existence ( Dasein) to the essence of technology”. This is because “ ly the true brings us into a free relationship with that which concerns us from out of its essence”.Heidegger 1977, p. 6. Thus, questioning uncovers the questioned in its (true) essence as it is; enabling it to be “experienced within its own bounds”Heidegger 1977, p. 4. by seeking “the true by way of the correct”. This is 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.” Heidegger begins the question by noting that “We ask the question concerning technology when we ask what it is”. This stems from following an ancient doctrine to which “the essence of a thing is considered to be what the thing is”. He starts from the correct or clear definition that “Everyone knows the two statements that answer our question”, that is, that “ chnology is a means to an end nda human activity”. The reason granted is that “to posit ends and procure and utilize the means to them is a human activity”. If technology is a means to a human end, this conception can therefore be “called the instrumental and anthropological definition of technology”.Heidegger 1977, p. 5. This raises the further question, “ at is the instrumental itself?”. This entails questioning the purview of instrumentality in which means and ends are subsumed, entailing the question, “ thin what do such things as means and end belong?”. A means can be seen as that through and by which an end is effected. It is that “whereby something is effected and thus attained”. In essence, it can be seen as a cause, for “Whatever has an effect as its consequence is called a cause”. But an end is also a cause to the extent that it determines the kind of means to be used to actualize it. As noted, “The end in keeping with which the kind of means to be used is determined is also considered a cause”. This conceptualization of instrumentality as means and ends leads the question further into causality, suggesting that “ erever ends are pursued and means are employed, wherever instrumentality reigns, there reigns causality”. To question causality, Heidegger starts from what “ r centuries philosophy has taught” regarding the traditional "Thus four ways of owing hold sway in the sacrificial vessel that lies ready before us. They differ from one another, yet they belong together. ... The four ways of being responsible bring something into appearance. They let it come forth into presencing. They set it free to that place and so start it on its way, namely into its complete arrival.Martin Heidegger, "The Question Concerning Technology," ''Basic Writings'' Ed.When these four elements work together to create something into appearance, it is called ''bringing-forth''. This bringing-forth comes from the Greek '' poiesis'', which "brings out of concealment into unconcealment". This revealing can be represented by the Greek word ''aletheia'', which in English is translated as "truth". This truth has everything to do with the essence of technology because technology is a means of revealing the truth. Modern technology, however, differs from ''poiesis''. Heidegger suggests that this difference stems from the fact that modern technology "is based on modern physics as an exact science". The revealing of modern technology, therefore, is not bringing-forth, but rather ''challenging-forth''. To exemplify this, Heidegger draws on theDavid Farrell Krell David Farrell Krell (born 1944),VIAF"Krell, David Farrell"/ref> is an American philosopher. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at DePaul University. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy at Duquesne University, where he wrote his dissertation o ...(Harper & Row, 1977), 287.
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. Enframing means that way of revealing that holds sway in the essence of modern technology and that it is itself not technological.Once he has discussed enframing, Heidegger highlights the threat of technology. As he states, this threat "does not come in the first instance from the potentially lethal machines and apparatus of technology". Rather, the threat 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". This is because challenging-forth conceals the process of bringing-forth, which means that truth itself is concealed and no longer unrevealed. Unless humanity makes an effort to re-orient itself, it will not be able to find revealing and truth. It is at this point that Heidegger has encountered a
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*Eldred, Michael (2000)