The thingness of the thing

In his article, "The Thing", Heidegger discusses how science conceals the "thingness of the thing" and essentially "annihilates" the thing, so that "they have never yet at all been able to appear to [be] thinking as things" (168). Science only manages to provide a representation of a thing, failing to reach the "reality of the thing" (168). Heidegger makes the point that if things are viewed not in terms of science, but instead, as tools embedded in nature and as fundamental parts of our lifestyles, then it can be shown how nature participates in the human process of making things.

He applies the example of the ceramic jug as a thing constituted not by its form or function, but by the void inside it and the gift that it offers in serving as a container. The void shapes the jug, just as the jug shapes the void. "The vessel's thingness [lies] in the void that holds," Heidegger claims (167). When one creates a jug and uses it, man and the divine forces of nature are being united. At this point,  the jug's "thingness" is revealed through the interaction of what  he calls the "fourfold", or four dimensions - "earth and sky, divinities and mortals" - that make up the contextual network of meaning in the world. Heidegger's fourfold brings together the thing and the world, so that its Being - its meaningful presence in the world - is apparent.

I've been trying to think of an example of what Heidegger would not consider a "thing". Instead, my mind keeps returning to the location-based social networking website, Foursquare, as a way to extend Bay and Rickert's discussion of how new technologies are "recompos[ing] our way of being in the world" (210) .

Users with a GPS device on their smartphone "check-in" when they enter specific venues or locations. This in turn can create a message on one's Twitter account, informing followers where you are. Each time a person "checks-in" he/she is awarded points, and can also become the "mayor" of the venue if that person has the most number of "check-ins" over the previous 60 days.

Users can also create venues, but from Heidegger's perspective, this form of technology limits "dwelling in the world" because people are less "mindful of the fourfold elements" (219). For instance, if an individual goes to a location simply to "check-in" on one's mobile device for the purpose of gaining points, he/she is attuning less to the folding-together of "thing" and world. It's not simply that the social app. distracts the user from experiencing a sense of place, but rather from experiencing the "interconnected" network of meaning of "thing" and world (222).