IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 15
which, he underscores, is "nothing at all technical" (VuA:9). In
questioning technology, Heidegger
aims not at a correct description
of the phenomenon of technology
that presupposes what it is, but at
uncovering its truth, which resides
in its essence.
In posing the question concerning technology, the path of
thinking leads straight back to the
Aristotelean doctrine of the "four
causes" (VuA:11) which Heidegger,
using the example of a silver libatory dish, proceeds to interpret as
four sources of indebtedness to
which the silver dish owes its presence as a finished thing ready for
use in devotional service. German
"Technik" is thus led back to Greek
te /xnh, and te /xnh is understood
as poi /hsij, as "bringing forth"
(VuA:15). Poi /hsij is then put into
relation to fu /sij as self-poiesis.
"For what is present according
to fu /sij sets out to bring forth,
e.g., the blossom breaking open
into bloom, from within itself (e )n
e (aut%=)" (VuA:15). So the path of
thinking makes a beeline for Greek
fu/sij on which, as we know, Heidegger concentrated his thinking
from early on. From fu/sij understood as a way of self-bringing-forth
analogous to "craft" ("Handwerk,"
VuA:15) as a bringing-forth from
another source, the path leads on to
Technik as a "mode of disclosing"
via the mediation that, "Bringingforth brings forth from hiddenness
into disclosure" (VuA:15).
Heidegger asks "Where did we
go off the track? We are asking the
question concerning technology
and have now arrived at a)lh q/ eia,
at disclosure" (VuA:16). But this
confusion is soon remedied by
showing that te /xnh is related
to pisth /mh, to knowledge as "a
mode of a)lhqeu /ein" (VuA:17).
But haven't we gotten off the
track even before this, because
the same ambiguity in the German word "Technik" is only duplicated, if not amplified by the Greek
word te /xnh? Te /xnh is "art, skill,
craft in work, cunning of hand, a
trade" or simply "the way, manner or means whereby a thing is
gained" (Liddell and Scott). Thus
the Greeks know of different kinds
of te /xnh such as te /xnh poihtikh /,
te /xnh
oikonomikh
)
/,1 te /xnh
xrhmatistikh /, te /xnh r (htorikh /,
and so on. These are respectively
the arts of making, of household
German Technik to Greek te /xnh
to exclusively te /xnh poihtikh /
and then on to fu /sij, whose
mode of being is characterized as
self-poiesis?
Heidegger considerably narrows
down the domain of phenomena
within which the question concerning Technik is asked. We have
to ask ourselves with what justi-
Of course, Heidegger is not
concerned merely with a definition
of technology but with its "essence"
which, he underscores, is "nothing
at all technical."
management, of acquiring money,
and of rhetoric. The art of making
includes both the crafts and the arts
of making works of art in the higher,
finer sense. It should be noted that
for Plato in his Gorgias, the art
of flattery, te /xnh kolakeutikh /
(464c) plays a major role, the art
of rhetoric being characterized at
length as a mere knack of flattery,
which is not a way of knowing, but
an art that merely conjectures and
guesses, aiming at a target by guesswork rather than knowledge ("a
technique, I say, not of knowing but
of guessing" 464c).
Why is it that Heidegger's questioning path of thinking eliminates
without so much as a word the very
broad spectrum of meaning of the
Greek word te /xnh, not only for
ancient Greek everyday life, but
also and especially in the philosophical discourse of the founders
of metaphysics, Plato and Aristotle? Why doesn't this circumstance
rate a mention, and why have generations of readers of Heidegger
been so amenable to overlooking
the sleight of hand in sliding from
This particular kind of te /xnh would call for a
metaphysics of exchange; cf., [4], especially Section 5, "Metaphysics of exchange."
1
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
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SuMMEr 2013
fication is this narrowing of the
field of vision of the questioning
mind's eye performed, thus transforming the sleight of hand into
an explicitly posed question in the
spirit of the opening line of Heidegger's lecture, "In the following
we will pose the question concerning technology."
Is the question concerning the
technique of acquiring money or
the question concerning the technique of flattery or the question
concerning the technique of persuasion not worthy of being asked,
and the phenomena to which these
questions point not questionable in our world? Are they secondary or even trivial questions
which, if at all, could be relegated
to social sciences such as economics or psychology? Are they
merely ontic questions rather than
genuine ontological, philosophical
questions?
There must be some justification for restricting the spectrum
of meaning of Greek te /xnh to
te /xnh poihtikh./ One such possible justification would be that only
te /xnh poihtikh / is philosophically relevant, precisely because of
the career that it has made within
the entire tradition of metaphysics. If we cast about, we soon find
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