Adolf Portmann: the expressive function of technique

Abstract

This essay focuses on the topic of technique in the thought of the well-known biologist, zoologist and anthropologist Adolf Portmann (1897-1982). First of all I’ll try to understand the biological and anthropological roots, that make a naturally-artificial (namely technical) being of a man. Then I’ll examine what kind of role and weight Portmann assignes to the technique, underlining risks and chances, closely linked to it, and showing the essentially expressive and self-expressive function of it. Finally I’ll specify the relationship between the development of technique in our society and the loss of the primary world: the aesthetic world of imagination.