Technology and the Soul. José Ortega y Gasset and the Question about the Meaning of Art

Autor u razmatranju polazi od postavke da je svrstavanje Ortege y Gasseta i njegove filozofije života u mislioce konzervativne kritike kulture izgubilo svoju vjerodostojnost. Radi se o autentičnome nastojanju rehumaniziranja svijeta polazeći od ideje o kraju modernosti i napretka zapadnjačke civilizacije. Ortega y Gasset je pitanje o smislu umjetnosti izveo u svezi s razmatranjem o biti tehnike. Pritom je autonomija djela moderne umjetnosti i suverenost događaja suvremene umjetnosti ono što više ne odgovara na izazove tehničke samofabrikacije svijeta. Čovjek nije u središtu svijeta, kao što svijet nije više predmetom neutralne filozofije izvan onoga što određuje postajanje života samoga kao projekta egzistencije. U iscrpnoj analizi dehumanizacije umjetnosti i tehničke konstelacije bitka u 20. stoljeću, autor pokazuje da je Ortega y Gasset uz Heideggera dalekosežno shvatio kako se drama ljudskoga života ne može više razumjeti drukčije negoli iz iskustva vitalnoga uma s onu stranu racionalizma i psihologizma modernih znanosti. Povijesnost slobode otvara mogućnost da umjetnost otvori drukčije razumijevanje života od metafizičkoga razlikovanja uma i tjelesnosti. No, kada se u doba posthumanoga stanja tehnički karakter egzistencije stvara iz logike »umjetnoga uma« (A-intelligence) tada je ravnodušnost prema umjetnosti postala druga strana ljudske sudbine. Stoga je potrebno iznova promisliti alternativu metafizičkome mišljenju Zapada u onome što dolazi s pojmom duše i njezine nesvodljivosti na bilo kakvu tehniku i tehnologiju.
The author tries to explore the problem of articulating the metaphysical issues made by Ortega y Gasset from the premise that classification of his philosophy of life in the manner of conservative cultural critique has lost its credibility. It should be useful to underline the efforts of rehumanization of the world starting from the idea of the end of modernity and progress of Western civilization. Ortega y Gasset has opened the question about the meaning of art deeply brought in close connection to a review of the modern technology. It is the autonomy of works of modern art and sovereingty of contemporary art events that is no longer responding to the challenges of technical world. The human is no longer the center of the world, as the world is no longer the subject of a neutral philosophy beyond what determines the becoming of life itself as a project of existence. In detailed analysis of dehumanization of art and technical constellation of Being in the 20th century, the author shows how clearly Ortega y Gasset along with Heidegger realized far-reaching way beyond the drama of human life and can no longer be understood otherwise than by experience of vital mind on other side of the rationalism and psychologism. Historicity of freedom opens the possibility that art should be an dispositif of different understanding the life from the metaphysical distinction of mind and body. But in the core of the posthuman condition, the technical character of existence created by the logic of “artificial mind” (A-intelligence) has produced some kind of uncanny apathy to the art as the other side of human destiny. Therefore, it is necessary to rethinking the alternative to metaphysical thought of the West in time to come with the term ‘soul’ and its irreducibility to any kind of modern technology.