Heidegger

Martin Heidegger, "The question concerning technology," The Question Concerning Technology, And Other Essays; translated and with an introduction by William Lovitt, New York: Garland Pub., 1977, pp 287-317. [pdf]

Start discussion abt technology in re causality. Evading essentialism. "Free relationship." Aristotelian mode of causality. Four types of causes
causa materialis - material cause
causa formalis - form into which the causes take shape (design)
causa finalis - end state or result in its greater context (intent)
causa efficiens - the actor making it happen

these things are united for Heidegger
"the fourfold way of occasioning"
bringing-forth, revelation, technology
setting-upon

causes are cyclical

the acorn must connect back into the cycle by maturing into a tree capable of dropping an acorn

for aristotle, in nature, there is no actor but rather the causa efficiens is within the other three causes

technology fits into conscious agents

science: Kant: when copernicus decided to make the earth go around the sun, and when galileo rolled balls down inclined planes in order to measure freefall, and when kepler applied that to the heavens, a light dawned upon man that reason dictates to nature

modern view of science is like this kantian version of science

we don't merely observe nature and replicate it as such

make, poiesis: master and then create

technology turns the entire world into the standing reserve

enframing partakes of the frenzy of ordering that blocks revealing itself and blocks our view of truth, loses our free essence

on the other hand it is the granting that lets man endure & partakes of the safekeeping of truth

revealing & concealing truth
this is the mystery of truth

but essential to "the granting that lets man endure"

what is this "ordering"?

as the potential of science dwindles, becomes realized, the potential of art (techne) grows, it becomes more mysterious

the more the potential of techn ology dwindles, the greater the potential of the poetic, the artistic

tension in Heidegger inside the notion of ordering, between revelation and making truth
if we are revealing the workings of nature
if we are inventing the workings of nature

there's an ambiguity there



TECHNOSCIENCE
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the role of large-scale collaboration
social fabric and agency
agency is a concept of the individual
something else is causing technoscience, namely, collaboration networks
the production of the technology is the production of the science

so as causa effiens seems less the product of a single conscious being, the less the distinction between revealing truth and inventing truth becomes

science becomes data-driven