The age of technique – A critical analysis of Umberto Galimberti’s technical absolute thesis

Abstract

Galimberti’s thesis in Psiche e Techne is that we live in the “age of technique”, an era marked by the crisis of anthroponcentrism, social idealizations and humanist categories. To affirm this thesis, Galimberti proposes a complex analysis, based on a set of methodologies that gradually shape his perspective. The focus of this article is to understand how these methodologies are articulated and, after that, highlight that Galimberti’s criticism of Heidegger ends up giving in to a naturalistic model. We propose a hermeneutic path that emphasizes three moments in the book: (1) technique as a human condition; (2) the transition to the age of technique; and (3) the analysis of the technical absolute. After this analysis, we conclude with (4) a question about the possibility of resuming a non-naturalistic phenomenological approach given the primacy of technique.