Critical Theory and the Thought of Andrew Feenberg

331 Pages·2017·2.24 MB·English

by  Darrell P. Arnold

critical theory
and the
thought of
andrew feenberg
edited by
DARRELL P. ARNOLD and ANDREAS MICHEL
Critical Theory and the Thought of Andrew
Feenberg
Darrell P. Arnold · Andreas Michel
Editors
Critical Theory
and the Thought
of Andrew Feenberg
Editors
Darrell P. Arnold Andreas Michel
Biscayne College Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
St. Thomas University Terre Haute, IN, USA
Miami Gardens, FL, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-57896-5 ISBN 978-3-319-57897-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57897-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944096
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover design by Samantha Johnson
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
C
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Darrell P. Arnold and Andreas Michel
Part I Reverberations of Marx and Lukács
2 What is the “Philosophy of Praxis”? 17
Steven Vogel
3 Philosophy of Praxis or Philosophical Anthropology?
Andrew Feenberg and Axel Honneth on Lukács’s Theory
of Reification 47
Konstantinos Kavoulakos
4 Gegenständlichkeit—From Marx to Lukács and Back
Again 71
Christian Lotz
5 Feenberg, Rationality and Isolation 91
Clive Lawson
v
vi CONTENTS
Part II Between Democracy and a Politics of Resistance
6 Transforming Dystopia with Democracy: The Technical
Code and the Critical Theory of Technology 117
Graeme Kirkpatrick
7 Andrew Feenberg’s Ecological Modernism 139
Darrell P. Arnold
8 Between Instrumentalism and Determinism: Western
Marxism and Feenberg’s Critical Theory of Technology 163
Matthew Greaves
Part III From Heidegger Through Postmodernism:
The Ongoing Role of the Critical Theory of Technology
9 The Question Concerning a Vital Technology:
Heideggerian Influences on the Philosophy of Andrew
Feenberg 193
Dana S. Belu
10 Future Questions: Democracy and the New Converging
Technologies 217
Andreas Michel
11 Revisiting Critical Theory in the Twenty-First Century 241
Raphael Sassower
12 Andrew Feenberg, Critical Theory, and the Critique
of Technology 263
Douglas Kellner
Part IV A Critical Response
13 Replies to Critics: Epistemology, Ontology, Methodology 285
Andrew Feenberg
CONTENTS vii
14 Appendix: Interview with Bruna Della Torre de Carvalho
Lima and Eduardo Altheman Camargo Santos 319
Bruna Della Torre de Carvalho Lima and Eduardo Altheman
Camargo Santos
Index 327
e C
ditors and ontributors
About the Editors
Darrell P. Arnold is Editor of Traditions of Systems Theory (Taylor &
Francis) and translator of many works from German, including Matthias
Vogel’s Media of Reason (Columbia UP) and Chrys Mantzavinos’
Naturalistic Hermeneutics (Cambridge UP). He works on issues in
critical theory and systems theory, especially as relevant to globaliza-
tion, environmental philosophy, and philosophy of technology. Darrell
is Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of the Liberal Studies and
Philosophy programs at St. Thomas University. He is also the President
of the Humanities and Technology Association (HTA), a national inter-
disciplinary society focusing on the study of technology and society.
From 2012 through 2014 Darrell was editor of the Humanities and
Technology Review, the journal of the HTA.
Andreas Michel is Professor of German at Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. His main interests are intellectual
history, theories of modernity, and the philosophy of technology. He has
recently published Historiografie der Moderne: Carl Einstein, Paul Klee,
Robert Walser (eds. Michael Baumgartner, Andreas Michel, Reto Sorg)
Fink Verlag, 2016. He has published essays on Carl Einstein, Gianni
Vattimo, German romanticism, modernity and postmodernity, and the
philosophy of technology. He has served as President of the Humanities
and Technology Association (HTA) (2006–2012) and of the Carl
Einstein-Society (2010–2017).
ix
x EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Contributors
Dana S. Belu is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy
Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. She works
at the intersection of continental philosophy, philosophy of technology
and feminist philosophy. Her book Heidegger, Reproductive Technology &
The Motherless Age was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2016.
Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of
Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University,
where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab.
He also serves as Directeur de Progamme at the Collège International
de Philosophie in Paris. His books include Questioning Technology,
Transforming Technology, Heidegger and Marcuse, Between Reason and
Experience, and The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt
School. A book on Feenberg’s philosophy of technology entitled
Democratizing Technology, appeared in 2006. His book Technosystem: The
Social Life of Reason was published in 2017.
Matthew Greaves is a doctoral candidate, instructor, and union activist
at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. His research appears
in journals such as Rethinking Marxism, The International Journal of
Technology, Knowledge and Society, New Proposals, and the Canadian
Journal of Communication.
Konstantinos Kavoulakos (born in Athens, Greece, in 1967) is
Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University
of Crete (Greece). He is the author or editor of 12 books. His research
focuses on an investigation of the twentieth century tradition of criti-
cal social thought. His most recent books include Ästhetizistische
Kulturkritik und ethische Utopie. Georg Lukács’s neukantianisches
Frühwerk, (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2014), and Tragedy and History.
The Critique of Modern Culture in the Early Work of Georg Lukács 1902–
1918 (Athens: Alexandria, 2012, in Greek).
Douglas Kellner is George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of
Education at UCLA and is author of many books on social theory, poli-
tics, history, and culture, including Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of
Marxism, Camera Politica; Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity;
Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond; works
in social theory and cultural studies such as Media Culture; a trilogy of
EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS xi
books on postmodern theory with Steve Best; a trilogy of books on the
media and the Bush administration; his most recent books are Media
Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011: From the Arab Uprisings to Occupy
Everywhere and American Nightmare: Donald Trump, Media Spectacle,
and Authoritarian Populism. His website is http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/
faculty/kellner/kellner.html.
Graeme Kirkpatrick is senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of
Manchester. He is author of several monographs on critical theory, aes-
thetics and technology, including Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game
(MUP 2011) and Computer Games and the Social Imaginary (Polity
2013).
Clive Lawson is the Director of Studies in Economics at Girton
College, Cambridge, UK. His central interest is in social ontology, but
he has written recently in environmental economics, the philosophy
of technology and the history of economic thought. He is an editor
of the Cambridge Journal of Economics and founder member of the
Cambridge Social Ontology Group. His book Technology and Isolation
was published with Cambridge University Press in 2017.
Christian Lotz is Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University.
His most recent book publications are The Art of Gerhard Richter.
Hermeneutics, Images, Meaning (Bloomsbury Press, 2015, pbk 2017);
The Capitalist Schema. Time, Money, and the Culture of Abstraction
(Lexington Books, 2014; pbk. 2016); Christian Lotz zu Marx, Das
Maschinenfragment (Laika Verlag, 2014); Ding und Verdinglichung.
Technik- und Sozialphilosophie nach Heidegger und der kritischen Theorie
(ed., Fink Verlag, 2012). His current research interests are in classical
German phenomenology, critical theory, Marx, Marxism, aesthetics, and
contemporary European political philosophy.
Raphael Sassower is Professor and occasional Chair of Philosophy, and
Director of the Center for Legal Studies at the University of Colorado,
Colorado Springs. Concerned with postmodern technoscience, the range
of topics he writes about include technoscience, political economy, aes-
thetics, and education. In addition to writing journalistic pieces, his
latest books include: Democratic Problem-Solving: Dialogues in Social
Epistemology with Justin Cruickshank (2016), Compromising the Ideals of
Science (2015), and The Price of Public Intellectuals (2014).