This coming rests and moves freely within what we call revealing [das Entbergen]. The Greeks have the word ἀλήθεια for revealing. The Romans translate this with veritas. We say "truth" and usually understand it as correctness of representation.

But where have we strayed to? We are questioning concerning technology, and we have arrived now at ἀλήθεια, at revealing. What has the essence of technology to do with revealing? The answer: everything. For every bringing-forth is grounded in revealing. Bringing-forth, indeed, gathers within itself the four modes of occasioning—causality—and rules them throughout. Within its domain belong end and means as well as instrumentality. Instrumentality is considered to be the fundamental characteristic of technology. If we inquire step by step into what technology, represented as means, actually is, then we shall arrive at revealing. The possibility of all productive manufacturing lies in revealing.

Technology is therefore no mere means. Technology is a way of revealing. If we give heed to this, then another whole realm for the essence of technology will open itself up to us. It is the realm of revealing, i.e., of truth.

{GA 7 14} This prospect strikes us as strange. Indeed, it should do so, as persistently as possible and with so much urgency that we will finally take seriously the simple question of what the name "technology" means. The word stems from the Greek. Τεχνικών means that which belongs to τέχνη. We must observe two things with respect to the meaning of this word. One is that τέχνη is the name not only for the activities and skills of the craftsman but also for the arts of the mind and the fine arts. Τέχνη belongs to bringing-forth, to ποίησις; it is something poetic.

The other thing that we should observe with regard to τέχνη is even more important. From earliest times until Plato the word τέχνη is linked with the word ἐπιστήμη. Both words are terms for knowing in the widest sense. They mean to be entirely at home in something, to understand and be expert in it.