User:Smlm92/sandbox

In The Question Concerning Technology, Martin Heidegger explains the four causes as follows:


 * 1) causa materialis is the material or matter
 * 2) causa formalis is the form or shape the material or matter enters
 * 3) causa finalis is the end
 * 4) causa efficiens is the effect that is finished.

Upon explaining them in this formal state as well as with the example of a silver challis, Heidegger raises the questions of why just these four causes, how was it determined that they exclusively go together, what exactly unifies them and what makes causa finalis and causa efficiens different. These are important questions to analyze and attempt to answer or else the definition of technology will remain obscure. He explains the necessity of the four causes as they allow for the material or matter is not present a path to become present. Heidegger argues that the ability to create a final product using these four steps is what unifies them as an exclusive group.

This group of causes arrives Heidegger at poiesis: the bringing forth of something out of itself. This process of bringing forth is revealing or aletheia, a key function of technology. Heidegger explains it as thus:

"Whoever builds a house or a ship or forges a sacrificial chalice reveals what is to be brought forth, according to the terms of the four modes of occasioning." Notice the word reveals instead of manufacturing as Heidegger argues that manufacturing is not what brings forth a material but the actual reveal.

Highlighted is the issue of social and technological progress along with society with the four causes. One of his examples is the words through translation from the language of the Romans, Greeks and to today have created some issues with the definitions of these words. Most notably he emphasizes the need to clarify the difference between words that now have different meaning through these translations. In particular he uses the words responsible and indebted as they relate to the four causes and the creation process. Another issue arising with progress of technology and society is the techniques. Heidegger presents the argument that even though these Greek ideas work with techniques of handicraftsmen, they are essentially outdated with modern machine powered technology as they are based on modern physics. Heidegger also points out though that the two work hand in hand. Modern physics is dependent on progress and building new materials in order to create exact science modern physics Smlm92 (talk) 18:36, 2 November 2014 (UTC)