Only a "no" can save us

Technique as negation of the cosmological character of existence in Jan Patočka's thought.

Abstract

Abstract The article analyzes the question of technique in Jan Patočka's thought. First, it introduces the notions of world and movements of life. Then it makes explicit the Patočkian understanding of the essence of technique. Finally, it elucidates sacrifice and negative freedom as the salvific in relation to the dangerousness of the technical understanding of being. The analysis pursues two objectives. First, to show that the essence of technique presupposes a negation of the link between man and the world as world, which takes the form of the absolutization of the second of the three movements of life and the interruption of the other two. Second, to indicate to what extent sacrifice and negative freedom have a religious significance and presuppose faith in the divine.