Need of the Technique from Metaphysics and Ethics

Abstract

Technique as a philosophical question has a double relevance: first one, insofar as it is considered as the essence of the human (only human being is a proper technical subject); the second one as it is considered as a vital function (although it arises in their heart, once created“no longer belongs to it”, it is transhuman). For this reason, the aim of the present paper is to expose two philosophical conceptions on the technical essence of human beings: José Ortega y Gasset’s smetaphysical conception and Hans Jonas's bioethics conception. These positions will be analyzed from their respective problems: technique as a vital function, in the case of Ortega’s perspectivism; and in the case of Jonas bioethics the technique as a possible cause of the destruction of the environment. Then, we will show the radical difference between them: while Ortega conceives technique as a vital function based on the concept of ‘well-being’, Jonas analyzes it from the concept of ‘necessity’ in an anthropological sense. The paper concludes explaining how, despite these differences, both authors reach to the same conclusion: the technical exercise must summon to reflect anthropologically on the impact of the self-creations and the environment in to preserve the quality of self-lives at the biological level (bio-ecology/bioethics).