Contemporary Technology as a Cipher of Transcendence: New Approach to Postphenomenological Theory of Technological Mediation through Karl Jaspers’ Metaphysics

Abstract

An “empirical turn” that took place in the mid-1980s has shaped the intellectual land­scape of modern philosophy of technology. This turn has been developed as an alter­native to previous approaches that paid little attention to the analysis of specific tech­nological objects, and instead consider technology as an abstract force alienated from concrete materiality. Postphenomenology that will be at the center of this article, is a contemporary philosophical school of thought that emerged after the “empirical turn”. At the center of the postphenomenological method lies the theory of techno­logical mediation. According to this theory, a human and the world are not predeter­mined but are constantly shaped through permanent interaction with each other. Such interaction, according to representatives of the postphenomenological approach, is established through technology. The latter actively changes both poles – the human who uses the technology, and the world, which is being perceived “through” technol­ogy. In my opinion, one of the major theoretical issues in the field of today’s theory of technological mediation is that it does not pay attention to the connection between a human and transcendence. In the current article, I show that such a connection can be revealed through Karl Jaspers’ metaphysics. Within this study, I will focus on two key concepts of Jasper’s metaphysics – on the notion of antinomy, and on the con­cept of a cipher. The main idea of both doctrines is that transcendence is revealed to a person not directly, but through certain material ciphers, which, according to Jaspers, appear to the human existence in the form of antinomies. Jaspers himself considers nature, art, and consciousness as such ciphers. After the analysis of Jaspers’ metaphysics, I formulate an intellectual hypothesis according to which modern tech­nology might be considered as a cipher of transcendence. Moreover, I will show that the connection between technology and transcendence can be established through the concept of technological antinomy. The main theoretical result of this study lays in the extension of today’s theory of technological mediation through the conceptual elements of Karl Jaspers’ metaphysics. Because of this extension, it becomes possible to identify the connection between transcendence and modern technology.