The Essence of Technology and the “Destining” of Being in the History of the West

Abstract

The objective of this investigation is to explicate the peculiar characteristic of Heidegger’s understanding of modern technology, which is essentially bound up with the concept of Being. According to Heidegger, in the advent of the modern age, in which rationality is incorporated with autonomy, the will of man becomes the unconditioned. With this unconditional will combined with calculating thinking, man begins a total subjugation of nature that culminates in the planetary reign of technology. And experiencing the unfettered exercise of modern technology that exploits nature relentlessly, Heidegger argues that modern technology is a great threat to the life of man. However, he is not convinced of the fact that the danger of technology is eventually overcome by human efforts. For Heidegger, the development of technology is governed by Being. To support this argument, he makes a claim that the essence of technology as “enframing (Ge-stell)” or “standing-reserve (Bestand)” is not derived from modern science whose foundation lies in the modern subject. In contrast to this, technology primordially originates in the inaugural Greek logos, which is grounded not in the representational thinking of subject but in Being. And the inaugural Greek logos is not considered as what is ephemeral and completed; rather it must be thought as a pervasive power that endures throughout the different epochs of the Western history and completes in the age of technology. Moreover, in order to demonstrate that the development of technology depends not on the autonomous activities of human being but on Being, Heidegger emphasizes the “destining (Ge-schick)” of Being in the West. By “destining,” he does not, however, means an inexorable condition of all people. In a true sense, “destining” signifies the necessary condition of the particular people, namely the particular people of the West. Thus, in Heidegger’s thoughts the essence of technology is explicated in respect to Being, because the development of technology is in accord with the metamorphosis of Being,i.e., the historical Being.