Professional Documents
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The O.rganic and its Substitwtes
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SINCE TilE TIMES of Nietzsche mid Spengler a literature
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lilOlirs has hi!~m a polemic: againsl technique, 'It This is iI
symptom )hat our own society has not yet nnished its .in
"technology·'; hilt dle lIIt!lIl1ing a:;sociated with Ihe (,,"er term is too narrow for
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Ihe Cerruan 'J't'c'h,',jk::
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2 MAN AND TECHNIQUE
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we associate with our images of a Ugreat man.· Like that
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Metals replm:e and outperform materials immediately
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6 MAN AND TECHNIQUE
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Natural science is no long[~r Ihe monopoly of (,Inivcrsi Ii
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the reahu of interpersonal relalions. We shall have to deal
with tj1ese phenomena later on, since they constitute the
sodul~psych{)logicalprol>lmlls of industrial sodety. For the
lime hoing. hnwover. WB must dnvnlop another idoa, which
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should help 10 illuminate the hunlan coIidilion. This con
cerns tlw human impulses operating in the technical
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realm.
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If we ask, "\Vhy did thig· "not happen before?" we get a ill
surprising answer. For millennia, in all primitive cultures
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J:I MAN AND TECllNIQlJE
,'jews 11m \\'odd. aud the Hwn who eire pari of it. us caughl
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in a rhytlHuic. :wlf-susluining. circular process of motion, ill
thus constiluting Ull animated CllIlun1ulism. Also, the magi ill
cal forces with \vhich the world is filled are nelther arbi a
trary nor spontaneous; one· can set them into motion by
means of the approp'r.i:al~>precisely repeated formulas.
after. \Vlti.d) they operate ll}l.der their OWll impulse, neces- .
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sarily <1lld illitolllatically. . . ill
A cOl1siderahle re~iduu of this primeval.' inllatn viow is
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15 MAN AND TECHNIQUE
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something nonhuman, and then differentiating himself
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from that.1.l It is not difficult to establish this point with
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himself is un automatism: he is heartbeat. and breath, he
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18 MAN AND TECHNIQUE
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A uh:>Ination
H. Schmidt's law of the three stages sliggests lhat.. from
man's standpoint. the objeclification of actions and facul
ties into the exterual world dovelups as if from tim outside
toward the inside. At first it is Ihe performance of organs
which are strengthened. improved. fncilitatml. Then IIw
same thing happens to physical energy inputs: lhe nnorgy
expenditure originally carried out orgonically (hy.animals
or by ~~n) is taken oVHrb~' llonliving malter. In, thn third
stage. whe:re wo find ourselves. what hn<:nulns uhim:. inmt is
lhe eirdo ofnclinn· itsnlf. including its control mit!" (Iime
lion. At the snnw limo. lhat part or physiologic:..1 lifn.\\'hid,
operales" through .cin;ular snns-orY-lHotor pnH~(~S:.;ns Im
comes objectified.---:.as does lhal part in which regulalion is
performed in a whollv automnLic fashion. for instuJlce bv
means of chemically transnliUed information. Final":.
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com It tI till g a lit onHi ta ca n so I \'e d ifTeren tial all dill h:gra I
this mHI onn niust huild into slIch automata sensory do
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