The Human Person flourishing in terms of Science and Tech

• Martin Heidegger


  German philosopher whose work is associated with phenomenology and existentialism
• Being and Time


  Heidegger's best-known work, gave an impressive analysis of human existence, the prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care, anxiety, guilt and above all death
• The Question Concerning Technology

  Heidegger examines the relationship between human and technology, a relationship Heidegger calls a free relationship
• Essence of technology


  Has nothing to do with technology, rather it is what the thing is
• Instrumental definition of technology

  Technology is a means to an end
• Anthropological definition of technology


  Technology is a human activity
• Heidegger's investigation of technology

  1. Portraying it as the building of a path

  2. Examining the common understanding of technology as a neutral instrument under the control of humans

  3. Analysing the notion of instrumentality to reach the truth or the essence of technology - it is traced to causality

  4. Technology is a very particular kind of revealing to, and the description articulates the key terms of Heidegger's philosophy of technology

  5. Discussing the relation of modern science to the essence of technology
• Enframing


  The destiny of technology
• Destiny


  Neither an inevitable fate that descends on humanity nor the result of human willing, disclosure of destiny and human freedom are one and the same
• Twofold danger to destiny

  1. Human being reduces itself to standing reserve and encounters nothing any more
  2. The disclosure of the enframing forecloses every other dispensation and conceals that too is a disclosure
• Bringing forth (poesis)


  A bringing out of concealment, the revealing is what the Greeks call truth (aletheia) - means unhiddedness or disclosure
• Techne


  Encompasses not only craft, but other acts of the mind and poetry
• Modern technology


  A challenging forth, very aggressive in its activity, revealing never comes to an end, the revealing always happens on our own terms as everything is on demand
• Examples of challenging forth and bringing forth

  • Volcanic eruption - challenging forth

  Coral bleaching - challenging forth

  Planting trees - bringing forth

  Mining - challenging forth

  Farming - bringing forth
• Questioning as the piety of thought


  Piety means obedience and submission, one builds a way towards knowing the truth of who he/she is as a being in this world
• Calculative thinking


  One orders and puts a system to nature so it can be understood better and controlled
• Meditative thinking


  One lets nature reveal itself to him/her without forcing it
• Aletheia


  Unhiddenness or disclosure
• Poesis


  Bringing forth
• Techne


  The root of technology
• Piety


  Associated with being religious
• Enframing - way of revealing in modern technology
• calculative thinking - one orders and outs a system to nature