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Essay
The Will to Power as Art
Art’s Metaphysical Capacity to Overcome Nihilism and Expand the Horizons of Existence
Enframing (Gestell)
In The Question Concerning Technology, Martin Heidegger diagnosed the modern human condition as one of enframing (Gestell) — a mode of being in which all of reality is viewed through a technological lens of resource extraction, optimization, and ordering. Rather than encountering beings as they freely presence themselves, we approach the world as a “standing reserve” to be made available for use through technological means.
Heidegger saw enframing as the culmination of Western metaphysics — the belief that reality can be rendered completely present to the rational, calculating mindset of the subject. But he also saw a way out through a retrieval of the ancient Greek notion of poiesis or “bringing-forth” — the kind of unconcealed revealing that allows beings to presence forth from concealment into the open region of truth (aletheia).
For Heidegger, authentic art could counteract enframing by disclosing new modes of Being. Great works don’t just represent reality but set up an original disclosure of truth that clears an open space for humans to newly dwell amidst beings. Art’s highest vocation is thus to poetically…
