The Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition: An Anthology

737 Pages·2014·5.337 MB·English

by  Robert C. Scharff (ed.), Val Dusek (ed.)

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“The second edition of Philosophy of Technology is a must-read for everyone trying to sort out how societies, n S Ed
technologies, politics, and nature come together, tacitly or not, in the constitution of human knowledge.” d C
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Jan Kyrre Berg Friis, University of Copenhagen t
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u R d
“This is an excellent selection of primary sources, essential to understanding technology and the conceptual debates
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about it. The editors are to be congratulated for their sensible choices and judicious introductions.” E f b
k y
Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford

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Unrivaled in scope and valuable editorial content, Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition remains
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the most comprehensive anthology of philosophy of technology available. This second edition includes new and
updated material on recent developments in the field, along with the editors’ insightful critical introductions to each
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topic. The combination of seminal essays with a fresh selection of contemporary material reflects changes in the field
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and in the world since the appearance of the first edition.
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In addition to its analysis of the familiar political, social, cultural, and engineering contexts affecting the nature of
technology, the volume includes a thorough examination of the influence on technology of historical, metaphysical, o
h
and epistemological concerns. It moves from readings on traditional concepts of technē, natural knowledge, and
human nature to the latest assessments of inherited paradigms, rooted in Enlightenment thinking, concerning
science, technology, and the philosophy of technology. A substantial portion of the anthology focuses on Heidegger’s S
n
writings on technology and their influence, and on a variety of questions animated by his work that interrogate
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technology’s connection to the current human condition, especially in the developed world. Further essays consider
the proper place of technological practice in human life, the apparent autonomy of technological forces, the idea of o
technology as a social practice and as a medium of political power, and technology’s role as a model for contemporary P
conceptions of intelligence and information.
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h
Robert C. Scharff is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of How History
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Matters to Philosophy (2014) and Comte After Positivism (1995; 2002), and the former editor of Continental Philosophy
Review (1995–2005). He publishes on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Continental philosophy (especially y PhiloSoPhy of
Dilthey, Heidegger, and the hermeneutics of science), the history of positivism (especially Comte and Mill, and g
the connection between classical positivism and recent analytic philosophy), and the philosophy of technology. He
is currently preparing a collection of essays on Heidegger and technology, and editing a Blackwell Guidebook on o
y
Heidegger’s Being and Time.
tEChnology
Val Dusek is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. His research focuses on the history f
and philosophy of science and technology, with a particular interest in the social factors influencing scientific and

technological development. He has written on non-mainstream philosophical influences (Asiatic, hermetic, and
Romantic) on the history of electro-magnetic theory. His numerous publications include Philosophy of Technology: thE tEChnologi Cal Condition
An Introduction (Wiley Blackwell, 2006) and co-editorship of the first edition of this volume.
SECond An Anthology • second edition
Edition
EditEd by Rob ERt C. SChaRff and Val duSEk
pb_9781118547250.indd 1 28/10/13 12:05:15

Philosophy of Technology
BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY ANTHOLOGIES
Each volume in this outstanding series provides an authoritative and comprehensive collection of the essential primary
readings from philosophy’s main fields of study. Designed to complement the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series,
each volume represents an unparalleled resource in its own right, and will provide the ideal platform for course use.
1 Cottingham: Western Philosophy: An Anthology (second edition)
2 Cahoone: From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology (expanded second edition)
3 LaFollette: Ethics in Practice: An Anthology (third edition)
4 Goodin and Pettit: Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology (second edition)
5 Eze: African Philosophy: An Anthology
6 McNeill and Feldman: Continental Philosophy: An Anthology
7 Lycan and Prinz: Mind and Cognition: An Anthology (third edition)
8 Kuhse and Singer: Bioethics: An Anthology (second edition)
9 Cummins and Cummins: Minds, Brains, and Computers – The Foundations of Cognitive Science: An Anthology
10 Sosa, Kim, Fantl, and McGrath Epistemology: An Anthology (second edition)
11 Kearney and Rasmussen: Continental Aesthetics – Romanticism to Postmodernism: An Anthology
12 Jacquette: Philosophy of Logic: An Anthology
13 Jacquette: Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology
14 Harris, Pratt, and Waters: American Philosophies: An Anthology
15 Emmanuel and Goold: Modern Philosophy – From Descartes to Nietzsche: An Anthology
16 Light and Rolston: Environmental Ethics: An Anthology
17 Taliaferro and Griffiths: Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology
18 Lamarque and Olsen: Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art – The Analytic Tradition: An Anthology
19 John and Lopes: Philosophy of Literature – Contemporary and Classic Readings: An Anthology
20 Cudd and Andreasen: Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology
21 Carroll and Choi: Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures: An Anthology
22 Lange: Philosophy of Science: An Anthology
23 Shafer-Landau and Cuneo: Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology
24 Curren: Philosophy of Education: An Anthology
25 Cahn and Meskin: Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology
26 McGrew, Alspector-Kelly and Allhoff: The Philosophy of Science: An Historical Anthology
27 May: Philosophy of Law: Classic and Contemporary Readings
28 Rosenberg and Arp: Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology
29 Kim, Korman, and Sosa: Metaphysics: An Anthology (second edition)
30 Martinich and Sosa: Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology (second edition)
31 Shafer-Landau: Ethical Theory: An Anthology (second edition)
32 Hetherington: Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology
33 Scharff and Dusek: Philosophy of Technology – The Technological Condition: An Anthology (second edition)
Philosophy of Technology
The Technological Condition:
An Anthology
Second Edition
Edited by
Robert C. Scharff
Val Dusek
This edition first published 2014
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
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1 2014
Contents
Source Acknowledgments ix
Introduction to the Second Edition xiii
Part I The Historical Background 1
Introduction 3
1 On Dialectic and “Techne”̄ 9
Plato
2 On “Techne”̄ and “Epistem̄ e”̄ 19
Aristotle
3 The Greek Concepts of “Nature” and “Technique” 25
Wolfgang Schadewaldt
4 On the Idols, the Scientific Study of Nature, and the Reformation of Education 33
Francis Bacon
5 Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View 47
Immanuel Kant
6 The Nature and Importance of the Positive Philosophy 54
Auguste Comte
7 On the Sciences and Arts 68
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
8 Capitalism and the Modern Labor Process 74
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Part II Philosophy, Modern Science, and Technology 89
Positivist and Postpositivist Philosophies of Science 91
9 The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle 101
Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn, and Otto Neurath
vi contents
10 Paradigms and Anomalies in Science 111
Thomas Kuhn
11 Experimentation and Scientific Realism 121
Ian Hacking
12 Hermeneutical Philosophy and Pragmatism: A Philosophy of Science 131
Patrick A. Heelan and Jay Schulkin
13 What are Cultural Studies of Science? 147
Joseph Rouse
14 Revaluing Science: Starting from the Practices of Women 161
Nancy Tuana
15 Is Science Multicultural? 171
Sandra Harding
16 On Knowledge and the Diversity of Cultures: Comment on Harding 183
Shigehisa Kuriyama
The Task of a Philosophy of Technology 187
17 Philosophical Inputs and Outputs of Technology 191
Mario Bunge
18 Analytic Philosophy of Technology 201
Maarten Franssen
19 On the Aims of a Philosophy of Technology 205
Jacques Ellul
20 Toward a Philosophy of Technology 210
Hans Jonas
21 The Technology Question in Feminism: A View from Feminist Technology Studies 224
Wendy Faulkner
Part III Defining Technology 239
Introduction 241
22 Conflicting Visions of Technology 249
Mary Tiles and Hans Oberdiek
23 The Mangle of Practice 260
Andrew Pickering
24 The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts 266
Trevor J. Pinch and Wiebe E. Bijker
25 Actor-Network Theory (ANT) 278
Bruno Latour
26 Actor-Network Theory: Critical Considerations 289
Sergio Sismondo
contents vii
Part IV Heidegger on Technology 297
Introduction 299
27 The Question Concerning Technology 305
Martin Heidegger
28 On Philosophy’s “Ending” in Technoscience: Heidegger vs. Comte 318
Robert C. Scharff
29 Focal Things and Practices 329
Albert Borgmann
30 Heidegger and Borgmann on How to Affirm Technology 350
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Charles Spinosa
31 Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads: Critique of Heidegger and Borgmann 362
Andrew Feenberg
Part V Technology and Human Ends 375
Human Beings as “Makers” or “Tool-Users”? 377
32 Tool Users vs. Homo Sapiens and the Megamachine 381
Lewis Mumford
33 The “Vita Activa” and the Modern Age 389
Hannah Arendt
34 Putting Pragmatism (especially Dewey’s) to Work 406
Larry Hickman
35 Buddhist Economics 421
E. F. Schumacher
Is Technology Autonomous? 426
36 The “Autonomy” of the Technological Phenomenon 430
Jacques Ellul
37 Do Machines Make History? 442
Robert L. Heilbroner
38 The New Forms of Control 449
Herbert Marcuse
39 Technological Determinism Is Dead; Long Live Technological Determinism 456
Sally Wyatt
Technology, Ecology, and the Conquest of Nature 467
40 Mining the Earth’s Womb 471
Carolyn Merchant
41 The Deep Ecology Movement 482
Bill Devall
viii contents
42 Deeper than Deep Ecology: The Eco-Feminist Connection 491
Ariel Salleh
43 In Defense of Posthuman Dignity 495
Nick Bostrom
Part VI Technology as Social Practice 503
Technology and the Lifeworld 505
44 Cultural Climates and Technological Advance in the Middle Ages 511
Lynn White, Jr.
45 Three Ways of Being-With Technology 523
Carl Mitcham
46 A Phenomenology of Technics 539
Don Ihde
47 Postphenomenology of Technology 561
Peter-Paul Verbeek
48 Technoscience Studies after Heidegger? Not Yet 573
Robert C. Scharff
Technology and Cyberspace 582
49 Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds 588
Daniel C. Dennett
50 Why Heideggerian AI Failed and How Fixing It Would Require
Making It More Heideggerian 597
Hubert L. Dreyfus
51 A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century 610
Donna Haraway
52 A Moratorium on Cyborgs: Computation, Cognition, and Commerce 631
Evan Selinger and Timothy Engström
53 Anonymity versus Commitment: The Dangers of Education on the Internet 641
Hubert L. Dreyfus
Technology, Knowledge, and Power 648
54 Panopticism 654
Michel Foucault
55 Do Artifacts Have Politics? 668
Langdon Winner
56 The Social Impact of Technological Change 680
Emmanuel G. Mesthene
57 Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals, with the Author’s 2000 Retrospective 693
John McDermott
58 Democratic Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Freedom 706
Andrew Feenberg