Ross, Anthony John Charles (2012) Correspondents theory 1800/2000: philosophical reflections ...

229 Pages·2012·1.27 MB·English

Ross, Anthony John Charles (2012) Correspondents theory 1800/2000:
philosophical reflections upon epistolary technics and praxis in the
analogue and digital. PhD thesis.

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Correspondents Theory
1800/2000
Philosophical Reflections upon Epistolary Technics
and Praxis in the Analogue and Digital
Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Anthony John Charles Ross
Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute
College of Arts
University of Glasgow
January 2012
Abstract
When we talk about things like the ‘lost art of letter-writing’ or the ‘digital
communications revolution,’ what do we mean? What do we lose and what do we gain as
we move towards digital ways of being in the world? Critically engaging with many of the
canonical writers in the philosophy of technology (Martin Heidegger, Albert Borgmann,
Don Ihde, Bruno Latour, Hubert Dreyfus and Jürgen Habermas, for example), and
following what has been termed the ‘empirical turn’ in that discipline, this thesis answers
such questions by means of a philosophical, comparative study of epistolary technics and
praxis in the early nineteenth and 21st centuries, making use of Romantic era archival
letters and related materials to compare and contrast our own, Internet-enabled experience
of communicating over distance. In so doing, it seeks to contribute towards our
understanding of the ways in which information and communication technologies
influence humanity by taking a long-view of many of the more radical claims (whether
optimistic or pessimistic) for the ways in which the Internet effects change in culture,
society and self. The thesis is structured thematically, with chapters examining the
experience of distance and presence in these two periods, the potential for meaningful
engagements by way of communicative media, the technological reconfiguration of social
networks, and shifts in the public/private distinction. In its conclusions it is broadly
sympathetic to the somewhat pessimistic positions of Heidegger and Borgmann, finding
evidence and supplying argument to support the notion that the Internet does in some
circumstances serve to diminish our meaningful involvements with the world and each
other. It is, however, critical of many of the more extreme arguments for the substantive
impact of the Internet, which very often lean too heavily towards naive technological
determinism, neglect the social shaping of technology, overemphasise the radical novelty
of the Internet, or simply deny or downplay many of its undoubted benefits.
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Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................................................v
Acknowledgements.........................................................................................................viii
Author’s Declaration..........................................................................................................x
1 Introduction: “Social Networking didn’t start with Facebook”.......................1
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................1
1.2 The Question of Radical Novelty............................................................................4
1.3 The General Approach of this Thesis......................................................................9
1.4 The Harden/Allan Collection................................................................................12
1.5 Why Philosophy of Technology?..........................................................................15
2 Questions Concerning Technology: Philosophy, Humanity, Technics...........19
2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................19
2.2 Phenomenology of Technology (1): Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty....................21
2.3 Phenomenology of Technology (2): Ihde on Human-Technology Relations.......24
2.4 Substantivism in Heidegger and Borgmann..........................................................29
2.5 Technological Determinism in McLuhan..............................................................35
2.6 Social Constructivism............................................................................................39
2.7 Latour and Actor-Network Theory........................................................................41
2.8 Conclusion.............................................................................................................43
3 Where Am I and Where Are My Documents? Distance and Presence in
Epistolary Networks............................................................................................46
3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................46
3.2 Heidegger on why “Short Distance is not in itself Nearness”...............................47
3.3 Location, Situation, Experience............................................................................50
3.4 Presentation and Re-presentation..........................................................................57
3.5 Two Objections.....................................................................................................59
3.6 Epistolary Presents................................................................................................62
3.7 Digital (Im)materiality..........................................................................................67
3.8 Conclusion.............................................................................................................72
4 What Makes the Desert Beautiful? Familiar Letters as Focal Things...........75
4.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................75
4.2 Borgmann on Focal Things and Devices...............................................................76
4.3 Borgmann on Information Technology.................................................................79
4.4 Criticisms of Borgmann........................................................................................81
4.5 Hand/Writing: Technology and the Effort of Inscription......................................85
4.6 Skill, Attention and the Epistolary Art..................................................................87
4.7 Patience in the Wait for Words.............................................................................91
4.8 Effort, Collusion and the Costs of Carriage..........................................................95
4.9 Involvement, Orientation, and the Postal Service.................................................98
4.10 Togetherness and Community in the Commerce of Letters..................................99
4.11 Conclusion...........................................................................................................103
5 Talking to Strangers: Communion and Alienation in Social Networks.......105
5.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................105
5.2 In Search of Community.....................................................................................106
5.3 Altered Appearances...........................................................................................109
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5.4 Extended Connectivity........................................................................................114
5.5 Bliss that Dawn: Utopian Dreams, Unrealistic Expectations..............................118
5.6 The Internet Alienation Thesis (1): Is Online Interaction Deficient?..................121
5.7 The Internet Alienation Thesis (2): Does Online Displace Offline Interaction?.127
5.8 ‘Real’ Versus ’Virtual’: A False Dichotomy.......................................................130
5.9 Conclusion...........................................................................................................136
6 Problems of Proximity: On Privacy and Publicity (and Porcupines)...........139
6.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................139
6.2 Defining Privacy and Publicity...........................................................................142
6.3 Altman and the Dynamics of the Private/Public Boundary................................146
6.4 A Brief History of Western Privacy....................................................................148
6.5 Epistolary Privacy and Publicity (1): Blurring Distinctions ...............................154
6.6 Epistolary Privacy and Publicity (2): Keeping Control.......................................158
6.7 The Digital Environment.....................................................................................163
6.8 Agents and Agency in the Digital Infosphere.....................................................165
6.9 Digital Interactions..............................................................................................168
6.10 The Digital Diffusion of Situated Action............................................................170
6.11 Conclusion...........................................................................................................174
7 Conclusion: What For? Where To? What Then?..........................................177
7.1 Methodological Contributions.............................................................................177
7.2 Theoretical Contributions....................................................................................179
7.3 Study Limitations and Future Directions............................................................183
7.4 Closing Words: Novelty, Nostalgia and Technological Life..............................185
Appendix.........................................................................................................................191
Bibliography...................................................................................................................193
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Preface
When we talk about things like the ‘lost art of letter-writing’ or the ‘digital
communications revolution,’ what do we mean? What do we lose and what do we gain as
we move towards digital ways of being in the world? In what ways have our
communicative technologies traditionally shaped our world, and how is this different to
our Internet-enabled age? How are our ways of living, interacting, talking, or even
thinking, changing as a result? To put such questions more formally:
 In what substantive ways have our means of interpersonal communication over
distance changed in the last 200 years?
 In what ways, and to what extent, do these technological differences change our
everyday meaningful experiences of ourselves, our society, our culture, and our
place in the world?
This thesis addresses these questions through a comparative study of epistolary technics
and praxis in the early nineteenth and 21st centuries. Critically engaging with many of the
canonical writers in the philosophy of technology (Martin Heidegger, Albert Borgmann,
Don Ihde, Bruno Latour, Hubert Dreyfus and Jürgen Habermas, for example), and
following what has been termed the “empirical turn” in that discipline (Achterhuis 2001b),
this thesis makes use of Romantic era archival letters and related materials to compare and
contrast our own, Internet-enabled experience of communicating over distance via email,
blogs, social networking sites and such. By taking this “long view” of technological
change, and by understanding technological history in a non-essentialist, non-deterministic
manner, “full of surprises, the unexpected and ... unintended and unpredictable side-
effects” as Don Ihde (2008: iv)puts it, this thesis seeks to challenge many of the more
radical utopian and dystopian claims made for the ways in which the Internet effects
change in culture, society and self. The thesis is structured thematically, and proceeds as
follows.
 Chapter Onelays out the rationale for thethesis’ methodology, arguingthe need for
ahistorical approach to the question of technological change through a critique of
the shortcomings of presumptions of the radical novelty of the Internet. It then
introduces the Harden/Allan letter-journals which form a historical touchstone for
the thesis, and finally précis’s Chapter Two byway of a brief discussion of the need
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for a philosophical approach modelled on contemporary empirical work in the
philosophy of technology.
 Chapter Two, on philosophy, technology and humanity, sets the theoretical
groundwork for the investigation, looking at canonical philosophers of technology,
including Heidegger, Borgmann, Ihde, McLuhan, Feenberg, and Latour. It outlines
my position, which is broadly sympathetic to the positions of Heidegger and
Borgmann, but which recognises the severe limitations of hard-line technological
determinism and essentialism and the need to examine concrete technologies in
their socially-embedded contexts.
 Chapter Three, on distance and presence in epistolary networks, examines the
materiality of physical objects like letters and digital objects such as emails to
describe how each in their way serve to influence our experiential conceptions of
the distance between us and the presence of our correspondents. It then goes on to
consider the ontological status of these objects in general, with particular focus
upon the Benjaminian “auratic” dimension of material objects, and the problematic
ontological status of digital objects.
 Chapter Four, on things, devices, and focal engagement, uses Albert Borgmann’s
critique of the device paradigm to discuss the ways in which our mediating
technologies can shape our meaningful engagements with the world and each other.
By examining the ways in which letters and letter-writing helped shape and orient
the lives of Jessy Harden, Dorothy Wordsworth, and others, it presents evidence to
support Borgmann’s view that pre-modern technologies, such as the humble letter,
could often act to support more meaningful engagements than our contemporary
mix of media.
 Chapter Five, on communion and alienation in social networks, discusses the ways
in which the Internet changes the ways in which we relate to each other both in
terms of the way it changes our appearance (diminishing our presence to bare text
or representing us as an onscreen avatar) and our possibilities for connection (put
most simply, it has never been easier to talk to strangers). It examines utopian and
dystopian claims for the widescale change such differences will effect and finds
reasons to think both positions overplayed, owing perhaps to their mutual
overemphasis on the “virtual” nature of online interaction.
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 Chapter Six, on the public/private distinction, discusses the ways in which the
Internet changes our experience of public and private space. Through a discussion
of Irwin Altman’s theory of privacy as a boundary mechanism and the history of
privacy in the West, it considers changes in our ways of being public and private
resultant from the shift from the exchangeof letters in 1800 to digital epistolarity
today. It finds that privacy was largely regulated in letters by physical constraints
and a culture of discretion, factors which are diminished by the fluidity and potency
of the digital infosphere and the digital diffusion of the context of situated action.
 Chapter Seven then concludes by summing methodological and theoretical
contributions, reflecting upon study limitations and providingfuture directions for
research, and, finally, closing with some last words upon thesubject of the current
scale and pace of technological change.
This thesis aims beyond the hype and hysteria characteristic of much writing on the subject
of the Internet, finding that the Internet effects change, but not to the degree so many seem
to eitherwish orfear. Nonetheless, in remaining broadly sympathetic to the philosophies of
Heidegger and Borgmann, this studydoes find substantive reasons for concerns about the
kinds of association possible via the Internet, which derive from factors such as the
diminished materiality of digital documents, reductions of meaningful engagements both
with and through technology, and changing conceptions of public and private space.
However, it avoids the broad-brush dystopianism of both Heidegger and Borgmann by
remaining alert to the constructivist nature of technological development, eschewing strong
technological determinism, questioning the extent of the Internet’s radical novelty,and
paying due heed to those benefits it does undoubtedly bring.
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Acknowledgements
My first, and most profound, thanks must go to my supervisors, Prof. Michael Moss and
Dr. Susan Stuart. The project was initially conceived by Michael and without the steady
support, care, and counsel of both, this thesis would not exist. Our supervisory sessions
were always illuminating, challenging and fulfilling in equal measure; I regret their ending.
Next, sincere thanks to Dr. Iain Brown at the National Library of Scotland, who co-
conceived the project with Michael and provided orientation and support in using the NLS’
manuscript collections. To Prof. Evelyn Welch and Ruth Hogarth for their tireless work in
co-ordinating the AHRC’s Beyond Text programme, under which this research was funded.
To the various research institutions in the Lake District I visited in the summer of 2010: all
staff at the Wordsworth Trust’s Jerwood Centre, Grasmere, especially Jeff Cowton,
Curator, and Rebecca Turner, Assistant Curator, for their time and patience; Clara Li-
Dunne, Museum Manager of the Armitt Library, Ambleside; and Nick Rogers, Collections
Manager at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal. Portions of this research were presented at
various conferences and events. In particular, an early version of ChapterFourwas
presented to the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia’s “Romanticism and the
Tyrannies of Distance” conference, held at the University of Sydney 10-12 Feb 2011, and I
must express my gratitude to everybody I spoke to there for feedback and stimulating
conversation. Next, thanks to all staff and students from other projects funded by the
AHRC’s Beyond Text programme for valuable discussion and critique at various
programme events. Andto all staff and students at HATII, especially those who attended
the always livelyTuesday reading group, includingMichael and Susan, Prof. Andrew
Prescott, Dr. Hannah Little, Dr. James Girdwood, David Macknet, William Young and
Michaela Clari. I am indebted to this group for my introduction to Heidegger and for the
development of many of the critical arguments in ChapterFive.Special thanks to Prof.
Eric Ketelaar for his judicious advice about early drafts of this material, given in his role as
external examiner during the HATII annual review process.
To all my friends and family, I must say this: in the archives of the NLS (MS5308/608)
there is a letter from John Hume in which he apologises to a friend for his lapse in
correspondence: “I think nothing of dispatching a Quarto in fifteen or eighteen months; but
am not able to compose a Letter once in two years: And am very industrious to keep up a
Correspondence with Posterity, whom I know nothing about, & who probably will concern
themselves very little about me; while I allow myself to be forgot by my friends whom I
viii
value and regard.” In this I know how Hume felt. It seems the height of irony that I should
have been so long engaged in researching and writing about epistolarity that I never found
time to contact my loved ones – I look forward to finding that time. Finally, to my beloved
girlfriend Lena: at last I am finished! I am unable to fully articulate the ways in which I
have relied upon your patient and unwavering support through the darker days of this
process, or the thanks I owe you now it is complete. I love you and cannot wait to start the
rest of our lives together.
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