Abstract

In the preface of this book, Loscerbo states that "the work has no pretense to 'criticize' in the sense of 'refuting'--which task we leave to those more able". In fact, Loscerbo makes little attempt either to criticize or evaluate critically Heidegger's work on technology. Rather, the book gives us a general reading of Heidegger's thought as a whole which focuses loosely on the question concerning the essence of technology. Loscerbo organizes his interpretation of Heidegger according to two principles, one microscopic, the other macroscopic. Microscopically the book is a series of elucidative essays, each of which concentrates almost exclusively on a single Heideggerian text. It is one of the virtues of this book that the range of texts considered is quite broad, and many of the texts discussed relate only tangentially to technology. On the other hand, this series of interpretive essays is arranged according to a three-fold division. The first part of the book consists of an examination of the historical origins of modern technology, the second part attempts a "metaphysical" exposition of the Being of beings in the modern, technological world, and the third part considers technology "out of Being as its own self- sending, which expression means as much as Being as 'die Lichtung des Sichverbergenden'". In practice, this division amounts to a section which considers a group of Heideggerian texts which focus on the history of philosophy, or the history of Being, a section which focuses directly on Heidegger's work specifically concerning technology, and a section which deals with Heideggerian texts which concentrate on the "truth-untruth" structure of Being. For the real subject of this book is neither Being nor technology, but rather, primarily, Heidegger's thought concerning Being, and secondarily, his thought concerning technology.