Gestell
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Gestell is a German word used by Twentieth century German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe a mode of "enframing". This concept was applied to Heidegger's exposition of the essence of technology. The conclusion regarding the essence of technology was that technology is fundamentally enframing. As such, the essence of technology is Gestell. Indeed, "Gestell, literally 'framing', is an all-encompassing view of technology, not as a means to an end, but rather a mode of human existence." [1]
The point that Heidegger was attempting to convey with Gestall was that all that has come to presence in the world has been enframed. Thus what is revealed in the world, what has shown itself as itself (the truth of itself) required first an enframing, literally a way to exist in the world, to be able to be seen and understood. Concerning the essence of technology and how we see things in our technological age, the world has been framed as the "standing-reserve." Heidegger writes,
Enframing means the gathering together of that setting-upon which sets upon man, i.e., challenges him forth, to reveal the real, in the mode of ordering, as standing-reserve. Enframing means that way of revealing which holds sway in the essence of modern technology and which is itself nothing technological.
Furthermore, concerning Heidegger's use of the word Gestall, another point must be noted. Heidegger uses the word in a way that is uncommon by giving Gestall an active role. In ordinary usage the word would signify simply an apparatus of some sort like a bookrack, but for Heidegger Gestall is literally a challenging forth and a "gathering together" for the purpose of revealing. Gestall is a demanding summons through an assembly and an ordering.
