Philosophy of Technology Information

The philosophy of technology is a philosophical field dedicated to studying the nature of technology and its social effects.

History

Considered under the rubric of the Greek term techne (art, or craft knowledge), the philosophy of technology goes to the very roots of Western philosophy.

• In his Republic, Plato sees techne as the basis for the philosophers' proper rule in the city.
• In the Nicomachean Ethics (Book 6), Aristotle describes techne as one of the four ways that we can know about the world.
• The Stoics argued that virtue is a kind of techne based upon a proper understanding of the universe.

19th century development

In 1877, the native German philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp who was based in Texas, published the fundamental book "Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik" in 1877 ^[1]. Kapp was deeply inspired by the philosophy of Hegel and regarded technique as a projection of human organs. In the European context, Kapp is referred to as the founder of philosophy of technology. Another, more materialistic position on technology which became very influential in the 20th century philosophy of technology, were constituted around the ideas of Benjamin Franklin and Karl Marx.

20th century development

Five prominent 20th century philosophers to directly address the effects of modern technology on humanity were John Dewey, Martin Heidegger, Herbert Marcuse, Günther Anders and Hannah Arendt. They all saw technology as central to modern life, although Heidegger, Anders,^[2] Arendt^[3] and Marcuse were more ambivalent and critical than Dewey. The problem for Heidegger was the hidden nature of technology's essence, Gestell or Enframing which poised for humans what he called its greatest danger thus its greatest possibility. Heidegger's major work on technology is found in The Question Concerning Technology.

Contemporary philosophy

Contemporary philosophers with an interest in technology include Jean Baudrillard, Albert Borgmann, Andrew Feenberg, Langdon Winner, Donna Haraway, Avital Ronell, Don Ihde, Bruno Latour, Paul Levinson, Carl Mitcham, Leo Marx, Gilbert Simondon, Lewis Mumford, Jacques Ellul, Bernard Stiegler, Günter Ropohl, Nicole C. Karafyllis, Richard Sennett and George Grant.

While a number of important individual works were published in the second half of the twentieth century, Paul Durbin has identified two books published at the turn of the century as marking the development of the philosophy of technology as an academic subdiscipline with canonical texts^[4]; these were Technology and the Good Life (2000), edited by Eric Higgs, Andrew Light, and David Strong and American Philosophy of Technology (2001) by Hans Achterhuis.

Technology and neutrality

With improvements in technology comes progress and a great concern over its shadowing effect on society. Lelia Green uses recent gun massacres such as 'the Port Arthur Massacre' and the 'Dunblane Massacre' to bring out the concepts of technological determinism and social determinism. Technological determinism argues that 'it was features of technology that determined its use and the role of a progressive society was to adapt to [and benefit from]technological change.'[Green, Lelia (2001) Technoculture, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, p 2.]. The alternative perspective would be social determinism which looks upon society being at fault for the 'development and deployment'[Green, Lelia (2001) Technoculture, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, p 3] of technologies. The reactions to the gun massacres were different in various regions, Tasmanian authorities made gun laws even stricter than before, while there was a demand in the US for the advocacy of fire arms. And here lies the split, both in opinion and in social dimension. According to Green, a technology can be thought of as a neutral entity only when the sociocultural context and issues circulating the specific technology are removed, it will be then visible to us that there lies a relationship of social groups and power provided through the possession of technologies.

See also

• Critique of technology
• Ethics of technology
• History of technology
• Industrial sociology
• List of philosophers of technology
• Philosophy of engineering
• Technological evolution
• Theories of technology

References

1. ^ * Ernst Kapp: Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik. Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Cultur aus neuen Gesichtspunkten (Braunschweig/Brunswick 1877, Reprint Düsseldorf 1978, Engl. Translation Chicago 1978).
2. ^ # The Outdatedness of Human Beings 1. On the Soul in the Era of the Second Industrial Revolution. 1956 # The Outdatedness of Human Beings 2. On the Destruction of Life in the Era of the Third Industrial Revolution.
3. ^ Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 1958.
4. ^ Techné Vol 7 No 1

Further reading

• Joseph Agassi (1985) Technology: Philosophical and Social Aspects, Episteme, Dordrecht: Kluwer. ISBN 90-277-2044-4.
• Hans Achterhuis (2001) American Philosophy of Technology Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33903-4
• Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen and Evan Selinger (2006) Philosophy of Technology: 5 Questions. New York: Automatic Press / VIP. website
• Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen, Stig Andur Pedersen and Vincent F. Hendricks (2009) A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology. Wiley-Blackwell. [1] ISBN 978-1-4051-4601-2
• Borgmann, Albert (1984) Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226066288
• Ellul, Jacques (1964), The Technological Society. Vintage Books.
• Michael Eldred (2000) 'Capital and Technology: Marx and Heidegger', Left Curve No.24, May 2000 ISSN 0160-1857 (Ver. 3.0 2010). Original German edition Kapital und Technik: Marx und Heidegger, Roell Verlag, Dettelbach, 2000 117 pp. ISBN 3-89754-171-8.
• Michael Eldred (2009) 'Critiquing Feenberg on Heidegger's Aristotle and the Question Concerning Technology'.
• Feenberg, Andrew (1999) Questioning Technology. Routledge Press. ISBN 978-0415197540
• Green,Lelia (2001) Technoculture: From Alphabet to Cybersex. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest pp 1–20.
• Heidegger, Martin (1977) The Question Concerning Technology. Harper and Row.
• Hickman, Larry (1992) John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology. Indiana University Press.
• Eric Higgs, Andrew Light and David Strong. (2000). Technology and the Good Life. Chicago University Press.
• Christoph Hubig, Alois Huning, Günter Ropohl (2000) Nachdenken über Technik. Die Klassiker der Technikphilosophie. Berlin: edition sigma. 2nd ed. 2001.
• David M. Kaplan, ed. (2004) Readings in the Philosophy of Technology. Rowman & Littlefield.
• Nicole C. Karafyllis, Tilmann Haar (Ed.) (2004) Technikphilosophie im Aufbruch. Festschrift für Günter Ropohl. Berlin: edition sigma.
• Manuel de Landa War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. (1991). Zone Books. ISBN 978-0942-29975-5.
• Levinson, Paul (1988) Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age. JAI Press.
• Lyotard, Jean-François (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. University of Minnesota Press.
• McLuhan, Marshall.
  • The Gutenberg Galaxy. (1962). Mentor.
  • Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. (1964). McGraw Hill.
• Mitcham, Carl. (1994). Thinking Through Technology. University of Chicago Press.
• Nechvatal, Joseph (2009) Towards an Immersive Intelligence: Essays on the Work of Art in the Age of Computer Technology and Virtual Reality (1993–2006). Edgewise Press.
• Nechvatal, Joseph (2009) Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.
• Nye, David. (2006). Technology Matters. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-64067-1
• Marshall Poe. (2011) A History of Communications. Cambrige University Press. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-107-00435-1
• Scharff, Robert C. and Val Dusek eds. (2003). Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition. An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-22219-4
• Seemann, Kurt. (2003). Basic Principles in Holistic Technology Education. Journal of Technology Education, V14.No.2.
• Simondon, Gilbert.
  • Du mode d'existence des objets techniques. (1958). (French)
  • L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique (l'individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information), (1964). Paris PUF (French)
• Stiegler, Bernard, (1998). Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. Stanford University Press.
• Winner, Langdon. (1977). Autonomous Technology. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262-23078-0
• Anthonie Meijers, ed. (2009). Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences. Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. 9. Elsevier. ISBN 9780444516671.

External links

Journals

• Ends and Means
• NetFuture - Technology and Human Responsibility
• Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology

Websites

• Philosophy of Technology entry by Maarten Franssen, Gert-Jan Lokhorst, Ibo van de Poel in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Society for Philosophy and Technology
• Essays on the Philosophy of Technology compiled by Frank Edler [dead link]

Categories:

• Media studies
• Philosophy of science
• Philosophy of technology
• Science and technology studies
• Philosophy by field

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See Also:

• Construct (Philosophy of Science)