Discourse and technique in the information age

Abstract

The study consists of a phenomenological reflection on the essence of man based on the meaning of his discourse in the era of technique. Considering the history of metaphysics at its end, in which all saying and thinking are commanded by information technologies, one wonders about the situation of language, understood as the pronouncement of human existence. Based on Heidegger's phenomenology and, particularly, on the notion of discourse (Rede) as a fundamental structure made explicit by Sein und Zeit's existential ontology, it is demonstrated that the focus of the discussion is not simply to question the instrumental use and technological application of language. Rather, the key for elaborating the interrelationship between discourse and technique is to capture the sense by which the contemporary man discourses his existence-in-the-world, transitioning from an original way of saying and understanding himself to one in which he and his world are governed by a challenging and provocative power of realness in his reality. It is shown that, to guarantee this contemporary man’s position with the entities, it is necessary for the technique to be a meaning to pronounce its existence, providing the meaning of being-device for the existence and its own possibilities, as well as for the mundane things. At the same time, it is clarified that, since the realization of human existence is guided by this meaning and challenging power represented by the technique, the instrumentalization of languages and their reduction to a communication system managed by information technologies, among other consequences, are required.