Technique, nature, human being, technology, philosophy, Descartes, Heidegger, Marx, Prometheus, human nature, technical ingenuity
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Abstract
This philosophical analysis explores the complex relationship between technique and nature, examining whether they are opposed or interdependent.
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[...] Does technique oppose nature? Does technique oppose nature? The technique is based on an opposition between human being and nature. If human being resorts to technique, it is first to overcome the weaknesses of its own nature, and, in this sense, to oppose it. The myth of Prometheus in Protagoras by Plato shows that human beings do not derive their advantages from nature but from their own technical ingenuity. Human beings, in fact, were forgotten by Epimetheus, entrusted with distributing natural advantages to living beings. [...]
[...] Aristotle emphasizes that everything happens as if the human body was made to produce and master technical activities. For him, the fact that human beings have a hand and reason makes them a being capable of technique. However, when human beings oppose nature and think they can free themselves from it by dominating it through technique, it always reminds them of itself. Human beings must therefore define the framework in which the domination of nature is profitable, and set themselves certain limits in accordance with their objectives, otherwise the risks incurred are catastrophic. [...]
[...] We have thus shown in what senses technique seems to oppose the external nature and human nature, indeed to be its negation. However, even the greatest inventor must submit to the laws of nature. A technical object, such as an airplane that allows us to fight against gravity, does so only by obeying the laws of aerodynamics. Therefore, it would be illusory to believe that the opposition to nature by technique could be total. We can only transform nature by submitting to its laws and mechanisms. [...]
[...] And it is these needs and desires that are the origin of the organization of work and the invention of techniques. Locke shows how one can deduce from the necessity of producing bread almost all the organization of a society, and understand from this need the division of labor and the main technical inventions. Through technique, human beings fulfill their nature. Indeed, we have seen, following Plato, that human beings produced techniques to compensate for the weaknesses of their nature. [...]
[...] If human beings cannot deny nature, it is because they need and depend on it. We can therefore estimate that the question is not so much whether technique opposes nature, but rather whether it is imperative and legitimate that it does so. It then appears, in this perspective, that the relationship of 'homo faber' to nature should not be a relationship of opposition, but a relationship of respect. In light of our examination, it has become apparent that human beings need to oppose nature in order to master it and make their environment habitable. [...]
