determined by his BEING-in-the-world. In Heidegger's READING,the four CAUSES becomeways of
being responsible for Being
.
5
These four ways of being responsible are gatheredtogether through their responsibility for the way the object emerges and makes its presence known. It is this emerging, or "presencing" that Heidegger calls truth, using theGreek word
Aletheia,
which MEANS revealing or uncovering.Truth is an opening andclosing of possibilities. Every revealing is also a concealing; an open space between paths,a place where reality appears in a certain LIGHT
.
The
essence of technology
is itsmode of revealing and concealing. Technology, according to Heidegger is dominance andcontrol.
The revealing that holds sway throughout modern technology does not unfold into a bringingforth in the sense of
poiesis
, the revealing that rules in modern technology is a challenging
(Rerausforden),
which puts to nature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy which can BEextracted and stored as such.
6
Heidegger then argues, in a somewhat romantic vein, that the technologyEMPLOYED by peasants is not a challenge to nature. This is because the peasant does not possess the technology that would ALLOW his subjectivity to revel in detachment fromnature. Again, the reversal of the subject and the object world appears in favorable terms.In Heidegger's view of peasant life, the object world is not manipulated by HUMANSUBJECTS.The work of the peasant does not challenge the soil of the field. In sowing grain,she plants seed with faith in the forces of growth. Conversely, the use of advancedtechnology challenges the world and makes it show forth as "STANDING reserve"
(Berstand)
,
"the way in which everything presences that is wrought upon by the revealing
5
Heidegger, 1982: 292
6
Heidegger, 1982: 296
that challenges."
7
Heidegger is claiming that quantity changes quality; the very nature of advancedtechnology, the sheer power and ubiquity of machines and tools,has changed our relationto nature. However, there is another assessment of technology that can be derived from a broader sweep through Heidegger's oeuvre. One of Heidegger's terms for the experienceof being-in-the-world is
Befindlichkeit,
which is a neologism based on the Germangreeting,
"Wie befinden Sie Sich?
8
As a characterization of our fundamental existentialstate,
Befindlichkeit
is always dependent on a mood
(Stimmung)
that Heidegger calls
Sorge ,
which means fear ,or worry,or care.The nature of being-in-the-world is such that we never escape these concerns,
butwe often try to deny them.We distract ourselves from our cares,the major one is death,andlive inauthentically.Our relation to technological tools, techniques, and gadgets can provide this distraction, taking us away from our more fundamental experiences, luringus into inauthenticity.This pseudo-security is a danger if it prevents the lived awarenessof what we ultimately are, beings in trouble, in a world of uncertainty. This is not to saythat Heidegger wishes unhappiness or suffering upon human beings.It is just that realhappiness, for Heidegger, can only come after we have reckoned with the
uncertainty
inlife, which can never be achieved by piling up more techniques and purchasing moregadgets.
7
Ibid.
8
Literally, "how do you find yourself?"
In summary, for Heidegger technology is doubly dangerous.First, it enframes aworld of manipulable objects and enshrines an instrumental subjectivity that blinds us tothe essence of the object wor ld.Second,it is a distraction that promotes inauthentic livingand evasion of the most pressing questions.For most of us, rejecting technology is not an option, but we can cultivate areflexive understanding that enables us to see the way that reality is constructed by our increasingly technological worldview. With increasing reflexivity comes the possibilityfor alternative relationships to the world; relationships that are less manipulative,controlling, and destructive. If we can allow ourselves to see technology as
one possible
mode of revealing among others, then we can be released from it.Heidegger claims,
Freedom is that which conceals in a way that opens to light, in whose lighting shimmers that veil that hides the essential occurrence of all truth and lets the veil appear as what veils.
9
However, for Heidegger there can be no real salvation from technology without acompletely new cultural paradigm.We might think about the way that Heidegger's viewson art provide a counterbalance to his views on technology and, more importantly, theways that art might be seen as an alternative mode of revealing our relation to the world,to nature, and to ourselves.
Art as Our Saving Grace
Heidegger opens his essay, The Origin of the Work of Art
with the same claim asin the essay on technology. He is after the
origin
work
of art, which means
"the source of
9
Heidegger, 1982: 306
its essence."
10
He is not particularly concerned with the properties of artistic objects or with tools, techniques,and artistic innovation.Heidegger is pursuing a phenomenology of
the thing,
its place in a world of human events, social processes, and cultural horizons.He begins by describing the famous painting,
A Pair of Shoes
, (1886) by Van Gogh.Theshoes are things that open up the world of the peasant woman