STS MID

• Martin Heidegger (1977): 'The essence of technology is by no means anything technological'
• Martin Heidegger


  • Widely acknowledged as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century
  • His work focused on ontology or the study of being 'being' or dasein in German
• Question of essence

  Asking "what" something is
• Instrumental Definition of Technology

  • Technology is a means to an end
  • Technology is an instrument aimed at getting things done
• Anthropological Definition of Technology


  • Technology is a human activity
  • The production or invention of technological equipment, tools and machines, and the products and inventions and the purpose and functions they serve are what define technology
• Revealing (a mode of being)


  • Technological things have their own novel kind of presence, endurance, and connections among parts and wholes
  • They have their own way of presenting themselves and the world in which they operate
  • True = correct / what is correct leads to what is true
• Technology

  A way of revealing - a mode of bringing forth
• Bringing forth


  Can be understood through ancient Greek philosophical concept "Poiesis"
• Poiesis


  Refers to the act of bringing something into unconcealment
• Aletheia


  • Unconcealment or disclosure or truth
  • A way of revealing that unconceals aletheia
• Techne


  • Resembles the term episteme - refers to the human ability to make or perform
  • Encompasses knowledge and understanding
• Techne (in art)


  • Refers to tangible and intangible aspects of life
  • Encompasses other acts of mind, and poetry
• Heidegger makes clear that technology is "no more means" but a mode or revealing that is, of bringing forth into unconcealment
• • Techne is something poietic
  • It is also a kind of knowing or episteme
• Controlling Technology


  As Heidegger says, we seek to get technology spiritually in hand. The will to mastery becomes all the more urgent, the more technology threatens to slip from human control
• Technology as Poiesis


  The essence of modern technology is not a bringing forth, but what Heidegger calls a challenging forth into revealing
• Poiesis


  • The activity in which a person brings something into being that didn't exist before
  • It is etymologically derived from an ancient Greek term which means to make
• Both primitive crafts and modern technology are revealing, but the revealing of modern technology is not a bringing forth, but a challenging-forth
• Challenging-forth


  It challenges nature by extracting something from it and transforming it, storing up, distributing it, etc.
• Setting Upon


  • Challenges forth the energy of nature as an expediting in two ways: Unlocks and exposes
  • The economic - Maximum yield, minimum expense demands stockpiling
• Bestand


  Means "stock", "holdings", "assets", or the term uses often, "standing reserve"
• Setting Upon

  • Hydroelectric powerplant
  • Strip-mining
  • Suleyman's Bridge at Mostar - first built in 1566
• Standing-Reserve


  • Modern technology takes all of nature to stand in reserve for its exploitation
  • Man is challenged to do this, and as such he becomes a part of the standing reserve
  • Man becomes the instrument of technology, to be exploited in the ordering of nature
  • The world has been framed as well as the standing reserve
• Questioning as a piety of Thought

  • Piety - associated with being religious
  • Obedience and submission
  • One cannot help but submissive to what his or her thoughts and reflection elicit
  • It is when we start questioning that we submit ourselves to our thoughts
  • Leads one to search for his or her place in the universe
  • One builds a way towards knowing the truth of who he or she is as a being in this world
• Enframing

  • It is not man that orders nature through technology, but more basic process of revealing
  • The actual is revealed as a standing-reserve
  • Historically prior to the development of science
  • Means that way of revealing that holds sway in the essence of modern technology and that it is itself not technological
  • It is as if nature is put in a box or in a frame so that it can be better understood and controlled
  • Tends to block poiesis
• Gestell


  • Means literally framing
  • Technology comes to a mode of human existence
  • Describes what lies behind or beneath modern technology
• Causality

  • The idea that something can cause another thing to happen or exist
  • The cause is what is responsible for the effect and it is indebted to the cause
  • Being responsible is an inducing to go forward
• The Four Causes


  • Material Cause - causa materialis (silver)
  • Formal Cause - causa formalis (form)
  • Final Cause - causa finalis (purpose)
  • Efficient Cause - causa effience (silversmith)
• Friedrich Holderin: 'But where danger is grows, the saving power also'
• Saving Power


  • Grows where danger is
  • Would allow a bringing-forth that is not a challenging forth
  • Grow out of "granting" which allows revealing
• Happiness (according to dictionary)


  Contentment, felicity imply an active or passive state of pleasure or pleasurable satisfaction
• Happiness (according to psychology)

  A mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy
• Happiness (according to behaviorist)

  A cocktail of emotions we experience when we do something good or positive
• Happiness (according to neurologists)

  The experience of a flood of hormones released in the brain as a reward for behavior that prolongs survival
• Hedonistic view of well-being


  Happiness is the polar opposite of suffering; the presence of happiness indicates the absence of pain. With this, hedonists believe that the purpose of life is to maximize happiness, which minimizes misery
• Aristotle's view


  • Human flourishing requires a life with other people
  • People acquire virtue through practice and that a set of concrete virtues could lead a person toward his natural excellence and happiness
  • There is an end of all the actions that we perform which can desire for itself
• Eudaimonia


  • A property of one's life when considered as a whole
  • Combines Greek words for "good" and "spirit" to describe the ideology
  • Defines happiness as the pursuit of becoming a better person
  • Eudaimonists do this by challenging themselves intellectually
  • Good spirited
  • Coined by Aristotle
  • Describes the pinnacle of happiness that is attainable by humans
  • Feel purpose
• Nicomachean Ethics


  • Human flourishing arises as a result of different components such as Phronesis, Friendship, Wealth, Power
  • In ancient Greek society, they believe that acquiring these will surely bring the seekers happiness, which in effect allows them to partake in the greater notion of what we call the good
  • People found means to love more comfortably, explore more places, develop more products, and make more money
  • Humans of today are expected to become "man of the world"
  • Competition as a means of survival has become passe, coordination is the new trend
• Hedaimonia


  Feel good
• Flourishing


  The highest good of human endeavors and that toward which all actions aim