Abstract

In the name of freedom. The actuality of Heidegger’s question concerning technology In his lecture ‘The question concerning technology’ (1953) Heidegger opens up a fruitful new sight on technology, when he understands its essence, not as a neutral instrument, but, with Aristotle, as a way of revealing. When the Greek technè is still a bringing-forth in the sense of poièsis, modern technology’s way of revealing has become a challenging, an ordering, a setting-up. For all things that are produced or touched by it, this means that they are ordered to stand by (bridging space), to be immediately at hand (bridging time), not for its own sake, not even for man’s sake, but only to be on call for a further ordering. Heidegger’s questioning reveals a more original concept of freedom, that of governing the open. In his lecture ‘Releasement’ (1955) he advocates a double attitude towards technology, that of releasement, a simultaneous allowing and letting go of the technical things and an openness to the secret of being.