On Heidegger’s “Ge-Stell”: Science, Technology and Narrative Art

The leading questions of this paper are as follow. What are we to read from Ge‑stell, which Heidegger articulated as a single rigorous concept? How can our reading both illuminate Heidegger’s thinking on the “essence” of modern technology and lay at the same time the groundwork for a fundamental reflection on modern reality, which is inseparable from technological development? Does narrative art, which grew up within modernity as a historical epoch, secure a horizon of truth and emancipation sufficient to incorporate the achievements of science and technology? As a provisional response to these questions, the present discussion proceeds in the following order. It will address the (im)possibility of translating Ge‑stell into Korean and discuss various issues associated with the term. Referring to its English renderings is an extension of examining the many facets of its Korean translation. Through close readings of “Das Ge-Stell” (“Ge-stell”) and “Die Frage nach der Technik” (“The Question Concerning Technology”), it will argue why Heidegger’s attempt to determine the essence of science and technology is an urgent, life‑and‑death issue for contemporary technological civilization, which is obsessed with pursuing AI. On the basis of this argument, the conclusion will assess the present significance and limits of Heidegger’s thought on the poetry of German poets represented by Hölderlin. At the same time, it will contend that, in a world where the operation of Ge‑stell is carried through, the outstanding narrative art of modernity is precisely a primordial site that harbors the emancipatory light of truth and freedom.