The Question Concerning Technology - Article Review

Jayzel May A. Quirante PHIL 25

The Essence of Technology

In Heidegger’s article “The question concerning technology”, he is saying that that’s why he wrote about this because he believes that technology relates to the question of being. Heidegger is interested in doing this article, particularly modern technology, because it was different than the older forms of technology. The difference between modern technology to the older ones is that now our relationship with it is both parent and child. Heidegger wrote about this because he aims to break the barrier and to understand more of what technology is really about. Heidegger believes that there are 2 main ways to understand technology and thinks that they belong together.. First, it’s instrumental; to view it as a midpoint to an end, while the other is to see it as human activity.

Heidegger also said that we should be aware of our modern technology today because there are different kinds of danger in what it brings to us. He also talked about the truth, which for him is revealing. Heidegger thinks that the truth embraces all the ways that we can relate in the world. Revealing means that if we do not know something about an object we analyse them and then we develop certain things of what really is that object. Heidegger talks about modern technology and how it helped the needs of people in their life and the problems of the world.

The problem with technology today is that it is like an apple tree, where humans can just pick one and it will fulfill their human needs. Just like the internet, whenever people wants to know about something it will be just one click and they can instantly gather information about what they’re looking. And also for entertainment, it’s so easy today to just look it up and then you’ll be entertained. Or socializing to people, today we have Facebook or Twitter; it’s so easy now to talk to people especially if the one you’re talking to is long distance. Unlike before that it’s so hard to talk to someone who is long distance. People nowadays rely on the internet and also modern technological inventions so much that it would make them lazy because the easier the work will be done the more people will not do it because people don’t work hard if it’s easy and also in terms of communicating, it takes the authenticity of talking to someone face to face because of what we have now which are social medias. Seeing how the world works this way overpower the awareness of humanity. Heidegger did not say that it’s not true, but it is a mode of revealing. Heidegger did not see these technological inventions as a danger at all.

In the end Heidegger mentions that technology formerly shared techné (the root of technology) with a wider practice of poiésis (which means something poetic). Technology also played a big role in