Heidegger and Foucault on modern technology: does Gestell‘correspond perfectly’ to dispositif?

ABSTRACTThis article compares Heidegger and Foucault on modern technology, taking its clue from Agamben’s claim that Gestell and dispositifare ‘perfectly corresponding’ concepts. So far, however, the task of a detailed comparison of Gestelland dispositifremains unresolved. At first glance, the two terms appear compatible, designating how we moderns began objectifying nature as well as ourselves as manipulatable raw material. Significant for the discussion is Heidegger’s and Foucault’s contrasting readings of Nietzsche, i.e. as the ‘last metaphysician’ versus ‘the first genealogist’. Schematically, for Heidegger, modern technology figures as humanity’s nearly inescapable condition, whereas Foucault sees it is ‘functionally indeterminant’, evolving in multiple, intersecting, and unexpected ways.