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The Gods and Technology: A Reading of Heidegger.

Article Excerpt
Rojcewicz, Richard (2006). The Gods and Technology: A Reading of Heidegger. Albany, NY: New York: State University of New York Press, viii + 248 pages, ISBN 0-7914-6642-6, $24.95.

If decades from now someone were to write an intellectual history of the 20th century, a chapter would have to be reserved to the prophetic vision that Martin Heidegger demonstrated as one of the first thinkers to address the danger of modern technology. Indeed, for historians as well as philosophers, Heidegger's foresight in projecting the cataclysmic possibilities of technology, including the prospect of "ecological disaster," may very well stand as his greatest legacy. In The Gods and Technology, Richard Rojcewicz provides an insightful "reading" of Heidegger's landmark essay "Die Frage nach der Technik" ("The Question Concerning Technology"), and thereby an interpretation of the overall impact of his thinking. As Rojcewicz states in his Preface: "This is a lengthy study attempting to reopen and take a fresh look at a brief text in which Martin Heidegger projected a philosophy of technology" (p. vii).

As the title of Rojecewicz's book indicates, the rise in the dominance of modern technology parallels a decline in humanity's capacity to heed a sense of the sacred, the holy, or the gods. "Moreover, never far from the surface is the theme of piety, a theme especially characteristic of Heidegger's later period; in play throughout this study is what Heidegger sees as the proper human piety with respect to something ascendent over the human, with respect to the gods" (p. vii). In this spirit, Rojcewicz asks whether a greater mystery of human existence remains concealed within our increasing dependence upon technology; and conversely, whether the prospect of once again experiencing awe before such a mystery can arise through a crisis that pits our desire to maximize the technological advances of today against our obligation to safeguard the earth for future generations. Indeed, in addressing the global impact of technology, Heidegger explores its ambivalent or Janus-sided nature.

According to Rojcewicz, Heidegger does not associate technology simply with the use of machines, but instead equates it with a radical transformation of our interaction with nature and its way...

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