Gestell
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''Gestell'' (or sometimes ''Ge-stell'') is a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
word used by twentieth-century German
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
to describe what lies behind or beneath modern
technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
. Heidegger introduced the term in 1954 in ''
The Question Concerning Technology ''The Question Concerning Technology'' (german: Die Frage nach der Technik) is a work by Martin Heidegger, in which the author discusses the essence of technology. Heidegger originally published the text in 1954, in ''Vorträge und Aufsätze''. ...
'', a text based on the lecture "The Framework" ("''Das Gestell''") first presented on December 1, 1949, in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. It was derived from the root word ''stellen'', which means "to put" or "to place" and combined with the German prefix ''Ge-'', which denotes a form of "gathering" or "collection". The term encompasses all types of entities and orders them in a certain way.


Heidegger's notion of ''Gestell''

Heidegger applied the concept of ''Gestell'' to his exposition of the
essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...
of
technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
. He concluded that technology is fundamentally Enframing (''Gestell''). As such, the essence of technology is ''Gestell''. Indeed, "''Gestell'', literally 'framing', is an all-encompassing view of technology, not as a means to an end, but rather a mode of
human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
existence Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontology, ontological Property (philosophy), property of being. Etymology The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval ...
". Heidegger further explained that in a more comprehensive sense, the concept is the final mode of the historical self-concealment of primordial ''
φύσις Fusis, Phusis or Physis (; grc, φύσις ) is a Greek philosophical, theological, and scientific term, usually translated into English—according to its Latin translation "natura"—as "nature". The term originated in ancient Greek philosophy, ...
''. In defining the essence of technology as ''Gestell'', Heidegger indicated that all that has come to presence in the world has been enframed. Such enframing pertains to the manner reality appears or unveils itself in the period of modern technology and people born into this "mode of ordering" are always embedded into the ''Gestell'' (enframing). Thus what is revealed in the world, what has shown itself as itself (the truth of itself) required first an Enframing, literally a way to exist in the world, to be able to be seen and understood. Concerning the essence of technology and how we see things in our technological age, the world has been framed as the "standing-reserve." Heidegger writes,
Enframing means the gathering together of that setting-upon which 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 which holds sway in the essence of modern technology and which is itself nothing technological.
Furthermore, Heidegger uses the word in a way that is uncommon by giving ''Gestell'' an active role. In ordinary usage the word would signify simply a display apparatus of some sort, like a book rack, or picture frame; but for Heidegger, ''Gestell'' is literally a challenging forth, or ''perform''ative "gathering together", for the purpose of revealing or presentation. If applied to science and modern technology, "standing reserve" is active in the case of a river once it generates electricity or the earth if revealed as a coal-mining district or the soil as a mineral deposit. For some scholars, ''Gestell'' effectively explains the violence of technology. This is attributed to Heidegger's explanation that, when ''Gestell'' holds sway, "it drives out every other possibility of revealing" and that it "conceals that revealing which, in the sense of ''
poiesis In philosophy and semiotics, ''poiesis'' (from grc, ποίησις) is "the activity in which a person brings something into being that did not exist before." ''Poiesis'' is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term ποιεῖν, whi ...
'', lets what presences come forth into appearance."


Later uses of the concept

Giorgio Agamben Giorgio Agamben ( , ; born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception, form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein) and '' homo sacer''. The concept of biopolitics ( ...
drew heavily from Heidegger in his interpretation of Foucault's concept of ''
dispositif Dispositif or dispositive is a term used by the French intellectual Michel Foucault, generally to refer to the various institutional, physical, and administrative mechanisms and knowledge structures which enhance and maintain the exercise of power ...
'' (apparatus). In his work, ''What is an Apparatus'', he described apparatus as the "decisive technical term in the strategy of Foucault's thought". Agamben maintained that ''Gestell'' is nothing more than what appears as ''oikonomia''. Agamben cited cinema as an apparatus of ''Gestell'' since films capture and record the gestures of human beings.
Albert Borgmann Albert Borgmann (born 1937) is a German-born American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana. In 2013 Borgmann received the Golden E ...
expanded Heidegger's concept of ''Gestell'' by offering a more practical conceptualization of the essence of technology. Heidegger's enframing became Borgmann's
Device paradigm In the philosophy of technology, the device paradigm is the way "technological devices" are perceived and consumed in modern society, according to Albert Borgmann. It explains the intimate relationship between people, things and technological devic ...
, which explains the intimate relationship between people, things, and technological devices.
Claudio Ciborra Claudio Ciborra (1951 – 13 February 2005) was an Italian organizational theorist,Donald A. Mankin (1996) Teams and Technology: Fulfilling the Promise of the New Organization'. p. 13. and Professor of Information Systems and PWC Chair in Risk Manag ...
developed another interpretation, which focused on the analyses of the Information System infrastructure using the concept of ''Gestell.'' He based his improvement of the original meaning of "structural" with "processual" on the etymology of ''Gestell'' so that it indicates the pervasive process of arranging, regulating, and ordering of resources that involve both human and natural resources. Ciborra has likened information infrastructure with ''Gestell'' and this association was used to philosophically ground many aspects of his works such as his description of its inherent self-feeding process.


References

{{Martin Heidegger Concepts in metaphysics Concepts in the philosophy of science Existentialist concepts Philosophy of technology Martin Heidegger de:Martin Heidegger#Technik als Gestell