Whereas Heidegger is positive about the possibility of attaining a free relation to technology and thereby limiting its dominion over man, Ellul sees technology as completely autonomous. Ellul writes,
"technology ultimately depends on itself, it maps its own route, it is a prime and not a secondary factor, it must be regarded as an “organism” tending toward closure and self-determination: it is an end in itself. Autonomy is the very condition of technological development" (Ed. Robert C. Scharff & Val Dusek: Philosophy of Technology 386).
While Heidegger suggests that the continuance of technology is ultimately beyond human control but that it can be limited, Ellul seems to indicate that technology embodies indomitable proliferation.
Whereas the common conception entails that technology is applied science, Ellul would have us understand that science is theoretical technology. He writes,
"Technology is both ahead of and behind science, and it is also at the very heart of science; the latter projects itself into technology and is absorbed into it, and technology is formulated in scientific theory. All science, having become experimental, depends on technology, which alone permits reproducing phenomena technologically. Now, technology abstractly reproduces nature to permit scientific experimenting. Hence, the temptation to make nature conform to theoretical models, to reduce nature to techno-scientific artificiality" (Scharff 388).
According to Ellul, the technological reproduction of natural phenomena leads to the temptation to utilize science beyond its range. We suffer the consequences of attempting to make nature conform to our theoretical models rather than trying to conform our models to nature. This temptation to reduce nature to techno-scientific artificiality causes science to become powerful violence against nature, according to Ellul.
I wonder who is more correct, Heidegger with his positive view of limiting technology? Or Ellul with his resignation to the autonomy of technology?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Jackie Trono - Heidegger On Technology's Relation to Ecology
In PHIL382: Philosophy of Technology, we examined Heidegger’s thoughts on technology, which are directly relevant to ecology. In “The Question Concerning Technology,” Heidegger suggests that the only way to limit technology is by establishing a free relation to it, and in order to that, we must understand its essence. Accordingly, Heidegger sets about characterizing the essence of technology. The essence of technology, he argues, is Being itself, operating through Enframing. Enframing can basically be explained as that which establishes the world as it is ontologically and therefore ideologically for humans. The danger of technology is that its Enframing reveals the world to men as mere supply and resource, in Heidegger’s terms, as standing reserve.
Consequently, Heidegger sees this essence of technology, Enframing, the danger within Being, as the source of our misconception of our relationship to our surrounding and life-giving environment. Rather than recognize the symbiosis of our relation with Being through being-in-the-world, we are forced into the Enframing of the world as standing reserve by technology. But, Heidegger insists, there is a saving power. That saving power is to be found in safekeeping, the means by which we combat the nearly elusive principal stages of Enframing, the incipient stage of ontology where ideology is formed. Safekeeping is brought about by recognizing the nature of the beast, as one might put it roughly. The nature of the best, or the essence of technology, is Being itself, that which reveals the world as it is for man. Thus, it is by questioning alone, not thinking or calculation that we can reach that safekeeping aesthetic or mood by which Heidegger suggests we can finally limit the destructive scope of the technological. Of course, as the essence of technology is Being itself, it is ultimately unconquerable by man, and so we must learn also to live in a symbiosis with technology, not in the master-servant relation by which we currently abide.
Consequently, Heidegger sees this essence of technology, Enframing, the danger within Being, as the source of our misconception of our relationship to our surrounding and life-giving environment. Rather than recognize the symbiosis of our relation with Being through being-in-the-world, we are forced into the Enframing of the world as standing reserve by technology. But, Heidegger insists, there is a saving power. That saving power is to be found in safekeeping, the means by which we combat the nearly elusive principal stages of Enframing, the incipient stage of ontology where ideology is formed. Safekeeping is brought about by recognizing the nature of the beast, as one might put it roughly. The nature of the best, or the essence of technology, is Being itself, that which reveals the world as it is for man. Thus, it is by questioning alone, not thinking or calculation that we can reach that safekeeping aesthetic or mood by which Heidegger suggests we can finally limit the destructive scope of the technological. Of course, as the essence of technology is Being itself, it is ultimately unconquerable by man, and so we must learn also to live in a symbiosis with technology, not in the master-servant relation by which we currently abide.
The Ecology of Eden - LE
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE ECOLOGY of EDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMARY
The Ecology of Eden is a book that contained many views to help people to see, to imagine, to learn, to understand, to enjoy etc…then the people can take experience in this book to apply in their life. This book was written around 1998 by Evan Eisenberg.
This book contains fours parts:
1.- Waves:
Evan Eisenberg described life is like a food chain “What most of us call the food chain – the hierarchy of who eat whom – better called the tropic pyramid, since it is broad at the base and tiny at the top” P.(4). The alliance in the community is necessary. According to Eisenberg “The Oldest alliance is the grandest of all, and the smallest as well.”P. (12). . The reaction against the nature occurs because “the “nature” phenomena discussed earlier. Farming – some have agued – is deeply unnatural, a distortion of human nature from which all our later ills have grown. Others think it just as unnatural, but call it a splendid triumph over our animal nature, and the seed of all our progress.” P. (61)
2.- The Mountain and the Tower:
“The myth …..of” What do all places have in common?.”P. (71) Evan Eisenberg makes it all clear in this part and he also has a wise point of view with internal, transcendent nature. He wrote the poem with two sentences as:
“Man, the tallest, cannot stretch to heaven.
Man, the widest, cannot cover the earth.”P. (116)
Do you think nature is game for anything?
3.- Idylls:
This part Evan Eisenberg described some of the excellent gardens. The gardens look like the Heaven on the Earth. Evan Eisenburg’s fantasy of a relation to nature is excellent. Because of Evan Eisenberg’s description of the garden, others can admire them too.
4.- Earth Jazz:
Evan Eisenberg mentions nature should always be lived in and used there and a source of success.
In the summary, I think the Ecology of Eden is a very good book that contains clear information with a remarkable breadth of learning and the metaphor of the maker’s eyes If I have spare time I will read this book again.
.
:
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE ECOLOGY of EDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMARY
The Ecology of Eden is a book that contained many views to help people to see, to imagine, to learn, to understand, to enjoy etc…then the people can take experience in this book to apply in their life. This book was written around 1998 by Evan Eisenberg.
This book contains fours parts:
1.- Waves:
Evan Eisenberg described life is like a food chain “What most of us call the food chain – the hierarchy of who eat whom – better called the tropic pyramid, since it is broad at the base and tiny at the top” P.(4). The alliance in the community is necessary. According to Eisenberg “The Oldest alliance is the grandest of all, and the smallest as well.”P. (12). . The reaction against the nature occurs because “the “nature” phenomena discussed earlier. Farming – some have agued – is deeply unnatural, a distortion of human nature from which all our later ills have grown. Others think it just as unnatural, but call it a splendid triumph over our animal nature, and the seed of all our progress.” P. (61)
2.- The Mountain and the Tower:
“The myth …..of” What do all places have in common?.”P. (71) Evan Eisenberg makes it all clear in this part and he also has a wise point of view with internal, transcendent nature. He wrote the poem with two sentences as:
“Man, the tallest, cannot stretch to heaven.
Man, the widest, cannot cover the earth.”P. (116)
Do you think nature is game for anything?
3.- Idylls:
This part Evan Eisenberg described some of the excellent gardens. The gardens look like the Heaven on the Earth. Evan Eisenburg’s fantasy of a relation to nature is excellent. Because of Evan Eisenberg’s description of the garden, others can admire them too.
4.- Earth Jazz:
Evan Eisenberg mentions nature should always be lived in and used there and a source of success.
In the summary, I think the Ecology of Eden is a very good book that contains clear information with a remarkable breadth of learning and the metaphor of the maker’s eyes If I have spare time I will read this book again.
.
:
The Tree of Life - LE
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE WILD GARDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMSRY
Indians people life was very simple that was the reason they liked to have the wild garden.
Indians were here before the Europeans came. “The native relation to nature was complex and deeply cultural, varying greatly from tribe to tribe. America was not wildness when white people arrived; it was a humanized landscape, though one humanized far more subtly than Europe had been.” P. 306. Wild gardening can occur in places like the humid tropics but that isn’t the only place. “Forms of wild gardening have also evolved in places where nature is tight-lipped.”P. 313.
Indians liked to live in nature that was they liked to have the garden with wild trees and every things looked like nature.
.
:
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE WILD GARDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMSRY
Indians people life was very simple that was the reason they liked to have the wild garden.
Indians were here before the Europeans came. “The native relation to nature was complex and deeply cultural, varying greatly from tribe to tribe. America was not wildness when white people arrived; it was a humanized landscape, though one humanized far more subtly than Europe had been.” P. 306. Wild gardening can occur in places like the humid tropics but that isn’t the only place. “Forms of wild gardening have also evolved in places where nature is tight-lipped.”P. 313.
Indians liked to live in nature that was they liked to have the garden with wild trees and every things looked like nature.
.
:
The Wild Garden - LE
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE WILD GARDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMSRY
Indians people life was very simple that was the reason they liked to have the wild garden.
Indians were here before the Europeans came. “The native relation to nature was complex and deeply cultural, varying greatly from tribe to tribe. America was not wildness when white people arrived; it was a humanized landscape, though one humanized far more subtly than Europe had been.” P. 306. Wild gardening can occur in places like the humid tropics but that isn’t the only place. “Forms of wild gardening have also evolved in places where nature is tight-lipped.”P. 313.
Indians liked to live in nature that was they liked to have the garden with wild trees and every things looked like nature.
.
:
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE WILD GARDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMSRY
Indians people life was very simple that was the reason they liked to have the wild garden.
Indians were here before the Europeans came. “The native relation to nature was complex and deeply cultural, varying greatly from tribe to tribe. America was not wildness when white people arrived; it was a humanized landscape, though one humanized far more subtly than Europe had been.” P. 306. Wild gardening can occur in places like the humid tropics but that isn’t the only place. “Forms of wild gardening have also evolved in places where nature is tight-lipped.”P. 313.
Indians liked to live in nature that was they liked to have the garden with wild trees and every things looked like nature.
.
:
The River of Eden - LE
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE RIVERS of EDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMARY
Nature enclosed rivers, lands, animals, woods, etc…Its combined together make the views more pretty.
“The Four Rivers of Eden are symbols of the flow of wildness from the heart of wilderness to the rest of the plan.”P. 99. According to Eisenberg, human take a lesson from the wilderness about how to treat nature. “One of the reasons for having wilderness around is to see the way nature works when left alone. It gives us a model to work from. But a wilderness does not just show the way nature works in general; it shows the way she works in a particular place.”P.101.
Many people liked river view more than others. Some poets wrote many poems about rivers very well. The Rivers of Eden is the one made Eisenberg liked very much, and he felt like an EDEN.
.
:
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
THE RIVERS of EDEN by EVAN EISENBERG
SUMMARY
Nature enclosed rivers, lands, animals, woods, etc…Its combined together make the views more pretty.
“The Four Rivers of Eden are symbols of the flow of wildness from the heart of wilderness to the rest of the plan.”P. 99. According to Eisenberg, human take a lesson from the wilderness about how to treat nature. “One of the reasons for having wilderness around is to see the way nature works when left alone. It gives us a model to work from. But a wilderness does not just show the way nature works in general; it shows the way she works in a particular place.”P.101.
Many people liked river view more than others. Some poets wrote many poems about rivers very well. The Rivers of Eden is the one made Eisenberg liked very much, and he felt like an EDEN.
.
:
The Marriage of Grass Man - LE
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
The Marriage of Grass and Man by Evan Eisenberg
Summary
Man always closed to the grass. Grass grew naturally on the land that kept
the land green and pretty.
Eisenberg describes the fall of man as “a scrambling outward and downward that must feel at times like a helpless sliding, as when your heels refuse to catch a scree slope; at times like a giddy romp; at times, even, like a triumphant ascent.”P.3. There is a relationship between man and the grass. Grass was palatable to four-legged beasts.” Human, being fond of those beasts, would then set fires that would keep trees scarce, grass fresh and abundant. By the dividing its energy between edible leaves and stems above ground and fireproof roots and runners below, grasses could thrive amid fires set by lightning and fires set by men.” P.4, 5.
Nature is always beautiful. Man or human being needed some things
around to help them like grass.
:
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
The Marriage of Grass and Man by Evan Eisenberg
Summary
Man always closed to the grass. Grass grew naturally on the land that kept
the land green and pretty.
Eisenberg describes the fall of man as “a scrambling outward and downward that must feel at times like a helpless sliding, as when your heels refuse to catch a scree slope; at times like a giddy romp; at times, even, like a triumphant ascent.”P.3. There is a relationship between man and the grass. Grass was palatable to four-legged beasts.” Human, being fond of those beasts, would then set fires that would keep trees scarce, grass fresh and abundant. By the dividing its energy between edible leaves and stems above ground and fireproof roots and runners below, grasses could thrive amid fires set by lightning and fires set by men.” P.4, 5.
Nature is always beautiful. Man or human being needed some things
around to help them like grass.
:
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
The Marriage of Grass and Man by Evan Eisenberg
Summary
Man always closed to the grass. Grass grew naturally on the land that kept
the land green and pretty.
Eisenberg describes the fall of man as “a scrambling outward and downward that must feel at times like a helpless sliding, as when your heels refuse to catch a scree slope; at times like a giddy romp; at times, even, like a triumphant ascent.”P.3. There is a relationship between man and the grass. Grass was palatable to four-legged beasts.” Human, being fond of those beasts, would then set fires that would keep trees scarce, grass fresh and abundant. By the dividing its energy between edible leaves and stems above ground and fireproof roots and runners below, grasses could thrive amid fires set by lightning and fires set by men.” P.4, 5.
Nature is always beautiful. Man or human being needed some things
around to help them like grass.
:
Dr. KIP REDICK
RSTD 337
LE, KIM-CHI
Date: April 12, 2007
The Marriage of Grass and Man by Evan Eisenberg
Summary
Man always closed to the grass. Grass grew naturally on the land that kept
the land green and pretty.
Eisenberg describes the fall of man as “a scrambling outward and downward that must feel at times like a helpless sliding, as when your heels refuse to catch a scree slope; at times like a giddy romp; at times, even, like a triumphant ascent.”P.3. There is a relationship between man and the grass. Grass was palatable to four-legged beasts.” Human, being fond of those beasts, would then set fires that would keep trees scarce, grass fresh and abundant. By the dividing its energy between edible leaves and stems above ground and fireproof roots and runners below, grasses could thrive amid fires set by lightning and fires set by men.” P.4, 5.
Nature is always beautiful. Man or human being needed some things
around to help them like grass.
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