DIE HÖCHSTE GEFAHR UND DAS RETTENDE – HEIDEGGERS FRAGE NACH DER TECHNIK
THE HIGHEST DANGER AND THE RESCUE - HEIDEGGERS QUESTION ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: Manuel Schölles: Die höchste Gefahr und das Rettende – Heideggers Frage nach der Technik. The thesis of my essay is that man can only free himself from the chains of technology when he starts to recognize the nature of technology as a seinsgeschichtliche Konstellation of being, the so-called Gestell. I take Martin Heidegger’s essay „The Question Concerning Technology“ (original title: „Die Frage nach der Technik“) and related texts as the basis of my interpretation. I see cybernetics and computer science as the universal sciences of contemporary life. From the cybernetic viewpoint, beings are only relevant as information (In- Formation), they are reduced to their mere Bestand. Hence, cybernetics are determined by the nature of technology, which presents the greatest danger (die größte Gefahr) since being itself thereby sinks into oblivion. In other words: Being starts to present a danger to itself. Nevertheless, in this danger also lies the possibility of a more profound Entbergen which allows man to enter the sphere of real freedom. Moreover, the transformation of the power of technology leads the thinker to an attitude that Heidegger calls Gelassenheit. It enables man to preserve the secret (Geheimnis) as the source of all beings; to keep the concealment of being as concealment (Verborgenheit als Verborgenheit).

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