Martin Heidegger – Machine and Truth

Abstract

In this chapter are interpreted certain passages of Heidegger’s essay Die Frage nach der Technik. Special attention is given to the concept of enframing (Gestell). In our reading this term refer to mechanical supporting structures, i.e. to devices that are not particularly complex, but they serve fundamental purposes such as supporting or containing in the broadest possible sense, so we might also translate Gestell as “assembly” or “framework”. With Gestell Heidegger attempts to express the essence of modern technology in the way that it reveals its “mechanicality”. The assembly is not just a device among others, but the horizon on which all the resources of the technological world, including human beings, are collected and coordinated. The object touched by the machine is thus converted into a “standing- reserve” (Bestand), or stock, something to be extracted, converted and consumed.