Die philosophische Betrachtung der Technik erfullt zwei Aufgaben: Erstens, wie das Wesen der Technik zu bestimmen ist; zweitens, wie die Moglichkeiten des Menschen inmitten der technischen Welt zu verstehen sind. Heidegger versucht in seinen Bremer Vortragen (1949), aufgrund der Einsicht in die Abwesenheit der "Nahe" in der technischen Welt, einerseits das Wesen der Technik als "Gestell" zu bestimmen sowie weiterhin im Wesen des Gestells "die Gefahr" zu erblicken und andererseits die Welt, in der jene Nahe zuruckgewonnen wird, als "Geviert" zu charakterisieren. Es geht also darum zu untersuchen, wie sich das Geviert inmitten der technischen Welt verwirklichen kann. Diesem Thema nahert sich Heidegger vermittels des Wortes "Kehre". Demzufolge handelt es sich um die Kehre des Seins, nicht aber um eine Kehre in der Haltung des Menschen. Dazu aber ist das Menschenwesen vonnoten. Die Menschen gehoren zum Geviert als "die Sterblichen", namlich jene, die "den Tod als Tod vermogen". Diese Bestimmung des Menschenwesens ist, so die Uberzeugung dieses Beitrags, zwar Kern der Technikauslegung Heideggers, findet sich jedoch nicht immer klar und deutlich dargestellt. So ist es Anliegen nachzuweisen, wie Heideggers Verstandnis des Menschenwesens mit wichtigen Gedanken seiner spateren Periode, z. B. "der Gelassenheit", der Moglichkeit der "Kunst", dem "dichterischen Wohnen auf dieser Welt" usw. in enger Beziehung steht.

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This paper discusses scientific technology from the standpoint of Christian thought. The thesis consists of linking actively the biblical Creation Story with an analysis of human existence. The Creation Story reveals the ambiguity of human existence-more specifically, the attributes of goodness and sinfulness which simultaneously inhere in that which is finite; and from that vantage point then, scientific technology, which is the result of human endeavor, must also embody the same ambiguity that inheres in its human agent. Regarding the dark side of this ambiguous scientific technology (threatening human goodness through an altering of the human condition), Christian thought assumes the role of critic and watchdog over scientific technology. However, as scientific technology is the fruit of human endeavor, and as humans are "the created co-creator" with God, humanity is able to participate constructively in the creatio continua of God. As such, Christian thought must safeguard its status as informed collaborator with scientific technology. Given the ambiguity of both humanity and the application of scientific technology, great changes in natural theology will be required in order to construct a new "Theology of Scientific Technology," and herein lies one of contemporary Christianity's greatest opportunities and challenges.

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This paper discusses the transformation of religion in a highly-informed society. The information system constructed through the network of radio, TV, mass media, and internet, has made remarkable advances. This rapid advance in information society requires changes in religiousness. My aim is not to discuss the circumstances that bring about some changes in religion, but to reveal how contemporary technology builds a systematic foundation on religious custom which differs from the idea of religious organizations or believers. The principle belief of this new system is not the relief of suffering for people nor world peace. The ethnic religious world that exists in our deepest mind, one's feelings of hatred and our self-interest-which sometimes goes to extremes based on this new system-are exaggeratedly and remarkably revealed in modern society.

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Malgre le succes incontestable des sciences contemporaines, nous assistons a un spectacle inquietant dans lequel la norme classique de la science telle que l'objectivite, l'universalite ou l'interet publique etc. commence a se desagreger au moins dans certains domaines de la science. Le Projet Manhattan symbolise la perte de l'autonomie des scientifiques a l'egard des controles etatiques, la biotechnologie alimente un temperament de l'entrepreneur dans le milieu scientifique puisqu'elle produit des connaissances qui garantissent la potentialite enorme de la richesse economique. Et au moment du grave accident de la centrale nucleaire de Fukushima en mars 2011, nous avons pris conscience du fait que la science, l'administration et les entreprises privees de l'alimentation electrique sont si etroitement liees les unes les autres qu'elles forment un ensemble unique de l'interet commun, et qui par la meme peuvent etre tres agressives a l'agent exterieur et contestataire pour proteger leur interet a eux. Dans ce contexte, l'idee de l'interet publique est presque perdue. C'est dans ce sens-la que la norme classique de la science se trouve degeneree ou affaiblie. Nous constatons ce fait important pour affirmer que la science ne peut plus se considerer comme agent totalement independant des examens et des analyses critiques des secteurs exterieurs de la science, parce qu'elle est parfois deformee et influences par des facteurs extra-scientiques. Et apres cette caracterisation depressive de la societe contemporaine, nous essayons de trouver une phase authentique de l'activite religieuse soit dans la sphere hors de l'intellect analytique, soit dans le mode des connaissances qui deborde des verifications positivistes. Et nous affirmons que, dans l'ere des sciences en partie degenerees, la religion doit assumer la responsabilite et le courage de critiquer certains resultats nocifs des sciences de ce type, pour proteger les gens faibles et les facteurs representatifs de la culture humaine.

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After the severe accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, many groups proposed the abolition of nuclear power. Religious groups joined this movement. The most well-known statement has been the declaration of the Japan Buddhist Federation issued in December 2011. In this paper the author compares the statements released by various religious groups in Japan on this matter. The author also refers to the report of the Ethics Commission for a Safe Energy Supply issued in May 2011 titled "Germany's energy transition: A collective project for the future." This document is a good example of ethical criticism against nuclear power and will help us to clarify the characteristics of the criticism made by Japanese religious groups. Through the examination of these statements we will be closer to finding answers to the question of what are the grounds for ethical criticism against nuclear power, and also what are the characteristics of the criticisms being made by religious groups. Finally these investigation will show a way to criticize contemporary science and technology in ethical terms.

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Neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet (1916-2007) and his co-workers presented a series of experimental results which proved that "free will" in a voluntary physical action, like the flick of the wrist, appears about 550 milliseconds after the accumulation of Readiness Potentials (RP). These eyebrow-raising results, which showed free will appearing not before but after brain processes, caused great debates among scholars in many fields, including humanities, and led to a different way of regarding the role of free will and of determinism. A considerable number of scientists who held a bias toward determinism or naturalism related these findings to prove the negation of the existence of free will. Libet himself, however, defended the existence of free will consistently in the strange concept of "Veto," which rejects or blocks the motor performance of the voluntary will. Behind his strong defense of free will or rejection of determinism, we may see his obligation as a Judaist to protect free will. And he thinks, based on his neurophysiological experiments, that Judaism as a system of ethics surpasses that of Christianity. Libet's interpretation of the striking experiments and his view on free will were, in the final analysis, influenced by Judaism.

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This paper examines Weil's dissertation written for the diplome d'etudes superieures at the Ecole Normale, "Science and Perception in Descartes" (1930). The purpose of the examination is to clarify her early thought and to prepare for the interpretation of her late, deeply religious thought, such as the world as a blind mechanism, the obedience of human beings, and a non-acting action (action non aggisante). In this dissertation Weil regards the real world as the interaction of powers, and understands human beings and things as the nodes of powers. Human beings, by using this power consciously in the imagination, find themselves anew in the world. Weil calls this usage "work" (travail) or "perceiving work" (le travail percevant), whose meaning is so broad as to include a very ordinary bodily action. Moreover, she views true science as the continuation of this "perceiving work." Thus human beings are situated in the same way as things in the network of powers, but on the other hand, through perceiving work they take the world (including themselves) as it is. This understanding is the beginning of her late world view, where she thinks that human beings are captured by the cruel network of necessity but belong to the network voluntarily through obedience to it.

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