The Question Concerning Technology

Page 6: “the causa finalis, the end, for example, the sacrificial rite in relation to which the chalice is required is determined as to its form and material”

Page 8: “That which gives bounds, that which completes, in the sense is called in Greek ‘telos’, which is all too often translated as aim or purpose. The telos is responsible for what as matter and for what as aspect are together co-responsible for the sacrificial vessel”

Q: Deos ‘telos’ and ‘casua finalis’ mean the same thing?

Page 18 :  The author mentions “ if man is challenged , ordered , to do this, then does not man himself belong even more originally than nature within the standing reserve?”

“Where and how does this revealing happen if it is no mere handiwork of man? We need not look far. We need only apprehend in an unbiased way.”

Comment : The tone of the above statement seems to be an answer for revealing but is unclear and hard to grasp.

Q: If man himself belongs to the standing reserve which constitutes the revealing then who is the witness of revealing? How does unconcealment play a part in the revealing?

Springs of Mechanization

Page 33: “Why the inventors did not apply their knowledge practically?”

Page 34: “The fact was that they possessed an inner orientation, an outlook on life different than ours.. the ancients gave little thought to lending their inventive powers to practical code”

Q: Were these inventions in a sort of prototyping phase still lacking a confidence to be used in large scale practical applications?

1 – Does Heidegger intend for “revealing” to be more closely associated with recovery, or with demystification?  (Pg. 11)

2 – Does Heidegger believe that Technology allows for the continuation of natural processes? That the wood brings itself forth as a tree, then the craftsman continues the process when carving that wood into a shape? (Pg. 13)

3 – Does Giedion mean to say that mechanization and manufacturing could not have developed if the guild system of skilled artisans had not given way to unskilled/divided labor? How did the guild system give way to the “rationalistic” thought which allowed for mechanization? (Pg. 32)

  1. Enframing, the essence of technology, is a “calling-forth” and a “challenging claim.” (pg. 19) Why did Heidegger then said Enframing “blocks the shining-forth and holding-sway of truth” in page 28?
  2. “Technology is a way of revealing.” (pg. 12) Even art, in the realm of techne, can be describe as a poetic revealing. According to this definition, can technology ever be outdated?
  3. In the time of Full Mechanization 1819-1839, the machine was no longer a replacement of the human hands. (pg. 44) What does it mean that the machine became an “intervention into the substance of organic as well as of inorganic nature” ?
  1. Is instrument such as a medium bring out the technology? (p4-6)
  2. If revealing is obscure, how can it relate to ordering? (p16.17)
  3. Enframing is part of technology essence, and essence reflect the tech, however, in the past tech just like a part of art. Is art kind like a solution to find the answer between past and present essence of tech?