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Prolegomena 2004
Modern Technology and the Quest for What is True. Martin Heidegger and his Understanding of TechnologyKeywords: Event , enframing (Gestell) , Communism , metaphysics , National Socialism , modernity , forgotness of Being , abandonment of Being , technology Abstract: Heidegger, first of all, perceives modern thinking to be a source of technology in its partly threatening dimension, though this source was inherited fromGreek thinkers. However, technology and threat, which arises from it, are not some kind of inevitable fate, but are the destiny of Being, which should be calmly awaited in its mysteriousness. For where there are threat and danger, there also is a prospect of salvation – in this way Heidegger adopts H lderlin’s restrained optimism. Furthermore, salvation presupposes constant inquiry as an expression of the piety of thought. If it does not fall to its proper place, then the forgotness of Being, the abandonment of Being, war and triumph of different modern technologies, which have created a lot of trouble in the technological age, can take root. Therefore, it seems that only enlightened thinking, which is revealed in its inquisitive piety, can offer some way out.
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