Re: Heidegger and technology



> To what degree is Heidegger's discussion of language tied to his
>discussions of technology? Certainly, on the surface, Heidegger's critique of
>linguistics as concerned with the functional rather than the experiential
>seems to be tied to his critique of the age of technology. I take this as a
>critique of language as mere expression or encoding and decoding of already
>present thoughts which occur outside of language. Rather, Heidegger seems to
>be pointing us towards how language is not only funcitional but also poetic in
>the way that it constructs and situates our realities. I envision
>Nietzsche and Derrida, though I am not quite sure of Heidegger himself, as
>having an "experience" with language in their use of rhetorical tropes to
>disrupt the flow of the functional encoding and decoding of singular certain
>meaning through language in order to create a plurality of possible meanings
>as well as lead us back to language in the same way that a metafictionist uses
>literary form to highlight the constructed nature of literary texts.
> Does this sound reasonable or completely off base? I would appreciate
>any comments on this or any other possible connections between language and
>the age of technology.
> Thanks,
> Todd Harper
> University of Louisville
>

(my english is not so good, nevetheless...)
The age of technology is the dominance of "das Gestell". This is the
fact and the risk of the age. And that involves also the language, in a
double sense:
1) The language is "the house of Being", the place and the way in
which Being offers its own "ouverture". In this sense the language is, in
this age, as poetic as well it shows - by reducing itself to "the flow of
the functional encoding and decoding of singular certain meaning" - the
essence of the age of technology (das Gestell).
2) Technology "pretends" the language as one of its own way of
realization: in this sense the a.m. reduction of the language to "the flow
of the functional..." is also the ultimate risk: the risk to loose the
essence of the language as the house of Being.
This is the double face of our age (the age of technology): the
extreme danger and the possible salvation dwell the same place (remember
Hoelderlin...)
Thanks.
Antonio Tombolini.



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  • Re: Heidegger and technology
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