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Essence of Technology According To Heidegger

“I was aiming my rockets at the moon, but they just happened to fall on London,” replied

Wernher von Braun, a brilliant rocket engineer of the 20th century who became the head of U.S

Space Program which later became NASA. That was the answer he carelessly gave when

somebody asked him how he felt about designing rockets which killed millions of people.

Although people relate to the world through modern technology, it is dangerous to view the

world only from a technological viewpoint when other conceptions also exist. In his article,

The Question Concerning Technology, Heidegger attempts to discern the measures that mankind

is taking in modern technology, and highlights the types of dangers emanating from technology.

Therefore, this paper dissects Heidegger’s text in an attempt to understand his philosophical

insight on engineering ethics.

At the core of his insight, Heidegger argues that the western world has not revealed the

whole truth. Therefore, the truth is limited in their history. Because it is argued that truth is

limited to knowledge, Heidegger says that history has imposed a precarious limitation on
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humanity. For Heidegger, truth encompasses more than just knowledge, and he refers to it as

“revealing” because it embraces the ways in which people relate to elements of the world,

including technology. According to Heidegger, people are not mere knowers. They have goals,

personalities, desires, and an important place in history that enables them to determine how they

relate to elements around them and how they manipulate such elements. For example, if a

believer and an atheist looks at a mosque, one will see a beautiful building while the other will

see a sacred place of worship. The mosque reveals itself to the atheist as beautiful while

revealing itself to the believer as sacred. In line with Heidegger’s school of thought, the mosque

reveals elements of its being to people in different ways according to their perceptions. However,

both elements are true because both are elements of the mosque’s being. Therefore, truth exists

in all ways of revealing, as revealing is the truth.

The fundamental question that Heidegger poses focuses on how people relate to and

perceive as well as imagine modern science and technology. The problem, according to

Heidegger, does not involve the existence of modern technology, but rather people’s orientation

to it. In order to respond to the numerous problems caused by modern technology, it is essential

to understand Heidegger’s formulation of the problem. Thus, it is not possible to ignore the

challenges by refusing to use technology. He says, “Everywhere, we remain unfree and chained

to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it” (Heidegger 253).

As Heidegger examines The Question Concerning Technology, he focuses on the essence

of modern technology because he believes that it causes the problem. In the text, he gives an

example of traditional farming in which peasants use traditional technology. The relationship

between the land and peasants deserves respect because they tend to the land, protect it, cultivate

it, and allow the crops to grow from it. On the other hand, the same land is exploited by modern
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technology as a pure resource in order to attain the “maximum yield at minimal expense”

(Heidegger 256). According to Heidegger, modern technology challenges the system to produce

more output. Thus, elements are revealed as a resource. Moreover, elements of the system are

exploited for their energy until they are completely drained and challenged for reuse. For

example, the dam that is located on the Rhine reveals the Rhine as a resource for hydroelectric

power and reused as a source of tourist attraction (Heidegger 256).

The main problem with modern technology, according to Heidegger, is that it requires

everything to be viewed from the viewpoint of modern scientific mind in order for the world to

be seen as a pure resource. Relating to the system in this manner views the world as a “calculable

coherence of force” (Heidegger 258). Modern physics and science are products of viewing the

system in this manner, and they are used to validate it as well as to create the technology that

reveals the elements of the world as pure resources. Therefore, Heidegger argues that the

problem is that the consciousness of mankind is dominated by this way of viewing everything in

the system. In addition, he says that the mode of revealing associated with modern technology is

unique because it excludes other modes. He argues that the modern mode of revealing limits

truth to the science of modern technology. While he does not say that scientific knowledge is

false, because it is also a mode of revealing, Heidegger argues that scientific knowledge

monopolizes the truth and disregards other truths. Scientific knowledge of modern technology is

just one mode or one way of viewing the system amongst many. Although elements of the

system can be viewed as resources or coherence of forces and scientific knowledge, they should

also be appreciated poetically, religiously, and aesthetically. Therefore, these other modes of

revealing the world are also true.

As described above, revealing is the relationship between the world and human beings.

Human consciousness is set up in a manner that corresponds to how reality reveals itself to

mankind. It changes humanity because it is more than a perception. Viewing the system as a

"calculable coherence" of elements makes people mere calculators predestined to keep

manipulating the world. The apex of human development is merely reflected in mastering the

world and dominating nature. Heidegger asserts that human dignity emanates from man’s

capacity to reveal nature because viewing the world in a way that limits revealing strips away

man’s dignity. Thus, he claims that the wholeness of human consciousness is dependent on how

it enables nature to reveal itself. In order for people to be whole in spirit, they have to experience

a wide variety of truth apart from scientific knowledge of modern technology. However, they

cannot achieve wholesome spirits if they are reduced to mere calculators. Therefore, Heidegger

does not see any danger of technological innovations, but the view of the world that prevents

people from experiencing other modes of revealing such as poetic, religious, and aesthetical

conceptions.

Heidegger separates the previous technology from the modern technology in order to

highlight the strange revealing of the latter and its danger to mankind. Because modern

technology uses modern physics, it is different from previous technology in the sense that it does

not conform to natural forces. Through modern physics, people know the amount of energy

present in nature, and they can set upon and challenge nature to release that energy. People mine

coal and exploit rivers, thus controlling and harvesting resources. Therefore, objects become

“standing-reserve, ready to be ordered” about (Heidegger 257). However, Heidegger claims that

humans are not in charge, as they do not have control over revealing. He says that revealing is

not present beyond people, but also neither exclusively nor decisively in them. Therefore, people
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respond to “the challenging claim which gathers man thither to order the self-revealing as

standing-reserve” (Heidegger 258). As a result, people are also standing-reserves, challenged to

exploit all things. Heidegger believes that this type of revealing constitutes the essence of

modern technology. He refers to it as “Enframing” (Heidegger 258). He argues that Enframing

poses a real danger to the liberty of mankind because it pushes mankind to perceive the world as

a standing-reserve or a pure resource.

The solution or salvation, according to Heidegger, should not focus on doing away with

the technological view of the world. Although the technological outlook of the world came into

being historically, and people cannot change it, Heidegger says that people can eradicate its

dominance in the world, which he believes to be the real problem. People can eradicate the

dominance of the technology-based perception by realizing that there are other ways of viewing

the world. He further proposes another way of viewing the world; one that was used by Ancient

Greek artists and craftsmen (Heidegger 255). There was a time when technology and art both

bore the name techne. Although art was not appreciated aesthetically, it was viewed as a way of

revealing true beauty as “poetic revealing” (Heidegger 264). While technology reveals the world

as a standing-reserve, art reveals the world as a beautiful element. He argues that the alternative

view draws its ways from nature. For example, as nature allows a plant to germinate from the

seed, Greek craftsmen allowed pots to spring from the soil. The pot was inside the soil, and the

craftsmen enabled nature to reveal itself in that way. Therefore, elements should sprout from

nature in a symbiotic association that enables the world to reveal itself in countless ways.

In his quest to question how people should think about technology, Heidegger gives two

answers: means to an end and human activity. The two answers constitute what he refers to as

the present instrumental and anthropological definition of modern technology. While he

acknowledges that the definition is not false, he argues that it is not comprehensive in describing

his purposes. Mankind's normal comprehension of technology has blind spots that do not allow

them to understand their connection with technology. In addition, mankind's attempt to control

technology is informed by his "means to an end" conception of technology. As Heidegger states,

"the will to mastery becomes all the more urgent, the more technology threatens to slip from

human control" (Heidegger 253). In order for humanity to understand its position in modern

technology, people should reconsider the meaning of "means to an end" and reestablish the

assumptions behind their understanding of "achieving their goals." With this line of reasoning,

Heidegger explores the concept of causality and recommends that mankind should consider the

effects of its technological activities on the elements of the world.

To sum up, Heidegger argues that the problem of modern technology emanates from how

people orient themselves and relate to technology. Although technology is an anthropological

activity and a means to an end, it is important for mankind to stop viewing the world as a

standing-reserve or pure resource and uses other modes of truth, such as poetic, aesthetic, and

religious conceptions, in relating to the world.

Works Cited

Heidegger, Martin. “The question concerning technology.” An Interdisciplinary Journal

of Philosophy 12.1 (1977): 252-263. Print.