Art That Focuses on Saving the Nature of Enframing
Defining Technology, according to Heidegger
'Technology' is one of those words that's so commonplace, all the same it'due south hard to define. Computers and smart devices are technologies, but so are books and notepads. Indeed, the definition of engineering may span from uncomplicated tools and utensils (hammers and spoons) to powerful machines and media (motorcar factories and artificial intelligence). How are we to say what technology is precisely? Enter Martin Heidegger.
Heidegger was a 20th-century German philosopher, typically associated with existentialism (basically, a school of thought that emphasizes individuality). His writings are notoriously hard to read, merely plow through the dense discourse and you'll find some valuable insights. Here, I thought I'd highlight his insight about what exactly technology is: not a thing, merely a human relationship.
Heidegger on the "Essence" of Modern Technology
In his essay "The Question Concerning Engineering," Heidegger asks, what is the "essence" of engineering science? Directing that question at modern applied science, especially powerful machines, he gives the following answer: "enframing." Let's unpack the meaning of that word.
Heidegger on "Enframing"
For Heidegger, "enframing" [Gestell in German language] is using applied science to turn nature into a resource for efficient use. Modernistic technology, says Heidegger, lets u.s.a. isolate nature and treat information technology as a "standing reserve" [Bestand]—that is, a resources to be stored for later utility. As an example, he gives the hydroelectric institute, which isolates a river and transforms it into a ability source.
In the enigmatic words of Heidegger, this isolation and transformation "sets upon nature … in the sense of challenging it."
This setting-upon that challenges along the energies of nature is an expediting [Fordern], and in two ways. It expedites in that information technology unlocks and exposes. Still that expediting is ever itself directed from the beginning toward furthering something else, i.eastward., toward driving on the maximum yield at the minimum expense.
Whoa, say what? Told yous he was difficult to read. Let me to translate.
Essentially, Heiddeger is telling united states technology is not just a matter. Information technology'south how we relate to the globe. Thus, it's no surprise that different technologies are, in issue, different means of relating to reality. In item, modern technologies—namely, powerful machines—are expedient ways of acquisition the world, because they objectify nature and turn it into a resource that can be quantified, calculated, and rationed.
In curt, we get from seeing nature as the phenomena we're a role of…
…to seeing it every bit natural resource for everyday business.
That'due south the essence of modern technology: using powerful machines to plough everything into a consumable or disposable resource.
From Natural to Human being Resource
At present, if that critique sounds radical, information technology's worth mentioning Heidegger was no hippie. (Quite the contrary, only that'southward some other story.) There'southward nothing necessarily incorrect with using technology to "enframe" nature this way. After all, civilization requires resources to survive. Nonetheless, there's a danger when we take this line of reasoning as well far. We may apply technology to enframe ourselves. Says Heidegger,
Every bit before long as what is unconcealed no longer concerns man fifty-fifty every bit object, but does then, rather, exclusively as continuing-reserve, and human in the midst of objectlessness is nothing but the orderer of the standing-reserve, so he comes to the very brink of a precipitous fall; that is, he comes to the betoken where he himself will have to exist taken as standing-reserve.
In other words, once we take enframing to an extreme, we may use technology to turn one another into "human resource" (which is, of course, how we refer to workers now, as opposed to the more dignified term "personnel"). At this indicate, nosotros may feel like disengaged, powerless cogs in a car. Since that feeling of disengagement is not uncommon in high-tech workplaces today (co-ordinate to Gallup) I suspect Heidegger would take appreciated the movie Office Space.
Rethinking Applied science
What if some of us object to technology turning the states into homo resources? Fortunately, there's an alternative. Instead of seeing technology every bit the means to plow everything (including ourselves) into resources, we tin see engineering science as art.
Technology as Art
Ultimately, Heidegger wanted to revive an earlier understanding of engineering. According to Heidegger, agreement technology as enframing—turning everything into a consumable or disposable resources—ignores a more holistic understanding of technology. As he points out, technology , etymologically speaking, means artistic skill or craftsmanship (from the ancient Greek give-and-take techne, from which we also get the words technique and technics):
techne is the proper noun non only for the activities and skills of the craftsman, but also for the arts of the mind and the fine arts.
Technology as a Relationship
Therefore, Heidegger suggests, if we run across engineering science as fine art, we come beyond a valuable insight. As an art, engineering is more than a thing. It's a human relationship too—an aesthetic and upstanding way of relating to nature and club.
If that insight is right, so every bit we use engineering science to excerpt resources, we should also brand certain nosotros're not inflicting damage in the process—for instance, on the environment (dumping pollution) or upon each other (treating workers like cogs in machines).
As a philosopher, what Heidegger was implying is that, at the end of the twenty-four hour period, we can't separate engineering science from human being values. And really, that's what the philosophy of applied science is all about.
Call back Heidegger was onto something? Feel costless to leave a comment below, or explore more than Technology and Culture articles on this site.
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Source: https://mindfultechnics.com/heidegger/
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