The Construction of the Attitude Towards Technology: A Reconsideration of Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology

Abstract

Heideggerian studies on the philosophy of technology often focus on “technology as a mode of revealing”, neglecting the value of “opposing the neutrality of technology” This proposition is, in fact, the core thread running through Heidegger’s critique of technology: by deconstructing the “subject-object dualism” implicit in both the neutrality thesis and the autonomy thesis, he opposes both technological optimism and pessimism, arguing that the essence of technology, Gestell (Enframing), constitutes a structural determination at the ontological level. This critique bridges Heidegger’s early and later thought: the early “intentionality of equipment” already implies technology’s transcendental constitution of the structure of existence, while the later theory of Gestell elevates this to an internal mechanism within the history of Being. Reinterpreting “releasement” (Gelassenheit) via Zhuangzi·Free and Easy Wandering, this attitude is revealed not as ambiguous but as a positive response based on the ontological difference: while acknowledging the necessity of technology, it resists the “danger” (Gefahr) of the “forgetting of Being” by maintaining an openness to possibility.