“The Question Concerning Technology”
Heidegger, Martin. “The Question Concerning Technology.” The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Trans. William Lovitt. New York: Harper TorchBooks, 1977. Print.
SummaryHeidegger argues from the beginning that the essence of technology is not technological (252, 264); the essay as a whole is about thinking behind technology. He rejects the standard definition of technology as an instrument, as it doesn't get at the essence of technology. Instead, he suggests that the essence of technology has to do with a way of revealing the world (255); specifically, Heidegger labels the ambiguous concept of "enframing" as the essence of technology (262). He goes on to argue that enframing is the danger. The danger of enframing comes from the missing out of the actual (261). We're in a sense, blinded, when we try to box ourselves into definite ideas about the world.
ResponseUltimately, Heidegger seems to be saying that we often have a need to box ourselves into an answer, and by doing so, we trap ourselves. He suggests that instead of fixating on tangible, concrete answers, we should instead embrace the ambiguity and leave our questions open-ended in order to seek the essence of what we are questioning. His belief of seeking out the "stellar course of mystery" (12) is both intriguing and comforting for me. People tend to dwell on truth and certainties; we want to know things for sure. Heidegger's approach to questioning and knowing is comforting in that this way of viewing and experiencing the world seems to be a more freeing way to live. While we can can still seek to get closer to the essence of something, the pressure of coming to some sort of conclusion or final answer is gone.
In class on 9/12/12, Dr. Murray said, "Its [Modern Technology] problem is its focus on order." This reminds me of our culture's obsession with Apple products, for example. Outwardly, the products themselves are so pristine and seemingly perfect in appearance. Apple stores are full of top-quality products, lined and stacked in perfect order. We generally don't question how modern technology came to be; rather, we just want to purchase, own, and master them [products and technologies]. To me, it seems the danger comes when we accept the pristine [ordered] packages we're given. We're encouraged to view the ambiguous as dangerous, when the ambiguity of questioning and seeking new ideas is where growth and knowledge really occur. Connections/QuestionsHeidegger references the Phaedrus at the end of "The Question Concerning Technology" (13); Cassirer, too, references the Phaedrus at the beginning of Language and Myth.
If technology is a kind of poeisis, or revealing, what does technology reveal? What is its truth? Peirce seems to have a need to categorize everything (often into threes). However, where Peirce might be viewed as an objectivist, Heidegger's focus on embracing ambiguity places his him into a more subjective camp in how he approaches questioning the world. For Cassirer, language is the symbolization of thought, which exhibits two different "modes of thought" (viii-ix). Further, Cassirer divides symbolic forms into groups, with each one relating to a different mode of being. Peirce uses similar phrases when he talks about firstness, secondness, and thirdness. In class on 9/12/12 during our Heidegger discussion, Tyler expressed his idea of Heidegger's piece on technology as a sort of archaeological dig--with Heidegger encouraging us to continue digging for new ideas--accumulating as many possible [ambiguous] answers as we can. David responded to Heidegger's approach by saying that "reality conceals itself." Finally, Dr. Murray added onto these ideas by comparing Heidegger's method to Bakhtin's strata--a way of "blowing up and condensing," heavy with layers. These ideas of a myriad of ways of revealing possibilities (without boxing ourselves into answers, of course!) remind me of Peirce's concept of firstness, which embraces possibility itself (which is ambiguous until secondness comes into play--which turns firstness into fact with the help of thirdness, the connecting element). |
Key Quotes
"Questioning builds a way" (252).
"[T]he essence of technology is by no means anything technological" (252).
"What has the essence of technology to do with revealing? The answer: everything. For every bringing-forth is grounded in revealing" (255).
"Technology is a way of revealing" (255).
"All revealing belongs within a harboring and a concealing. But that which frees--the mystery--is concealed and always concealing itself" (260).
"[H]uman reflection can ponder the fact that all saving power must be of a higher essence than what is endangered, though at the same time kindred to it" (263).
"Freedom is that which conceals in a way that opens to light, in whose clearing shimmers the veil that hides the essential occurance of all truth and lets the veil appear as what veils" (330).
"[T]he essence of technology is by no means anything technological" (252).
"What has the essence of technology to do with revealing? The answer: everything. For every bringing-forth is grounded in revealing" (255).
"Technology is a way of revealing" (255).
"All revealing belongs within a harboring and a concealing. But that which frees--the mystery--is concealed and always concealing itself" (260).
"[H]uman reflection can ponder the fact that all saving power must be of a higher essence than what is endangered, though at the same time kindred to it" (263).
"Freedom is that which conceals in a way that opens to light, in whose clearing shimmers the veil that hides the essential occurance of all truth and lets the veil appear as what veils" (330).