Ontology of Technique: Establishment of Technical Ontology by Heidegger

Abstract

This study is intended to analyze the establishment of technical onto-logy by Heidegger. Heidegger, discusses the answer to the question, "What is Being?", in particular, on the basis of the concept of technique. According to him, the real meaning of the concept of technique had been forgotten from Aristotle to his time. Thereupon, Heidegger focuses on the issue of technique in the second period of his philosophy. In his opinion, technique is not man's production of various tools and equipment based on the data obtained through the sciences, on the contrary, it is the unveiling of technical Being, revealing the existing. Unlike the ancient technique, the modern one does not reveal the secret of Being; rather it either covers Being or veils the area between people and Being. Heidegger defines revealing the secret as truth. His definition of technique has six characters: substitution, residence, arrangement, storage, framing and turning. In Heidegger, the revealing style of Being is framing. At the same time, framing has a structure and discourse that attack and challenge Being via human beings. The only way to eliminate the adverse condition cau-sed by framing is the return that takes place all of a sudden thanks to merely reasoning. This is because Being and people belong to one another. Therefore, according to Heidegger, technique is a way of Being to reveal itself, and the technical ontology is a special philosophy through which the essence of Being is revealed based on the concept of technique.