Stig Børsen Hansen - Philosophers of Technology

ISBN 9783110619478

e-ISBN (PDF) 9783110622072

e-ISBN (EPUB) 9783110619515

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

In Memoriam: Robert Joensen

This book has been a long time in the writing, and it gives me great pleasure to record my gratitude to some of those who have helped it take shape. Feedback from and conversations with students at the University of Copenhagen encouraged me to pursue the task of putting the material into book form in the first place. Thanks are due to the late Stig Andur Pedersen for discussing with me the overall theme and structure of the book. A book on the same theme written by him would likely look very different, but I hope this is a work he would have wanted to consult.

Almost two decades ago, assisting Graeme Gooday in his teaching at the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds got me interested in the philosophy of technology. This was a stimulating intellectual environment. Fortunately, the interest that was sparked there withstood the precariousness and dynamics of an academic career as well as other tasks and duties. Teaching at the HumTek degree program at Roskilde University offered an opportunity to meet and listen to one of the philosophers treated in the book, Langdon Winner. Just as importantly, working closely with the students, as they designed and reflected on technical artefacts, I could frequently see the relevance of combining technical insight with the philosophical issues discussed in the book. It was a great place to work, and several colleagues there engaged critically with parts of the manuscript.

Thanks are due to participants at research colloquia at my own institution, the University of Southern Denmark, as well as ones held at the Universities of Aalborg and Aarhus. On these occasions, I have benefitted from the opportunity to discuss the overall plan of the book as well as aspects of its chapters. Dylan Cawthorne, Michael May, Hans Fink, Asger Srensen, Anne Gerdes, Nafsika Athannasoulis, Mikkel Bille and Sren Harnow Klausen have given generously of their time by offering detailed comments on the material and helped me avoid more than a few embarrassing mistakes. Maja Louise Nielsen was an invaluable help in preparing the manuscript, and Tim Vogel at Walter de Gruyter has been a source of encouragement in steering the manuscript through the publication process.

Without Sonia, Kasper and Jonathan, I imagine this book would have been finished a lot sooner. I am grateful that they in so many ways put the frequently all-consuming process of writing and preparing a book manuscript into perspective. This book is dedicated to them.

Heidegger, Martin (1977). The Question Concerning Technology. In The Question Concerning Technology. And other Essays. London and New York: Garland Publishing.

Winner, Langdon (1977). Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a theme in Political thought. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.

Marx, Karl & Engels, Friedrich (19752004). Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 50 Vols. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Marcuse, Herbert (1964). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press.

Dewey, John (1996). The Collected Works of John Dewey 18821953. Jo Ann Boydston; Larry Hickman (Eds.) Charlottesville, Va. : InteLex Corporation.

Historian of technology David E. Nye once suggested to me: Sometimes you have to give a collection a name. Then it becomes somebodys job to take care of it. He was talking about collections of objects of technical and historical interest and the demands they place on the institutions that house the collections. His observation seems an apt description of the field of philosophy of technology and outlines the task of this book. The remark points to the occasional creative nature of acts of naming acts that achieve something new, rather than describe what already is somehow a natural collection. Philosophy of technology is now frequently spoken about as a field or collection of thoughts, philosophies and philosophers that can be taught and enlisted for different intellectual purposes. This book is written out of a perceived need for providing an overview of philosophy of technology to take care of a collection that can prove unwieldy for a newcomer, and whose items I suggest can require dusting off, for those familiar with the objects. Highlighting and rearranging objects, as well as giving a more prominent positioning to some items in the collection, is occasionally the job of custodians of museums and academic fields alike.

This is a book on a theme that academics, policymakers and laymen alike are drawn to. Currently, technology is perhaps the most pivotal concept when we seek to make sense of ourselves, our times and societies. It informs a range of policies. As I am writing this, a new subject is being introduced into the Danish public school, a subject which is perhaps best translated as Technological literacy or more directly understanding of technology. The contents of the subjects are largely concerned with the use of computers and information technologies as they are encountered in everyday life; how to code software; how to be aware of various pitfalls when using communication technologies and how to use computers to construct things. This reform of the schooling of the nations youth and the changes it entails to teachers colleges is one among many witnesses to the work of political forces, to what we find important in our society and to what is perceived to be required for its continued flourishing.

When one starts reading about the motivations and reasons for having such a subject, it soon emerges that views of the future are deeply shaped by one of many prevalent technologies: the personal computer. The proposed school subject does not differ much from academic and popular discussion of technology. It immediately raises a question of definition. Technologies surely concern more than the use of computers and their information processing. The naming of the school subject technological literacy might suggest a tendency to work with a simplified, prototypical definition, according to which technology simply means a range of devices computers as their workings increasingly get our attention and to some appear to impact our daily lives in the most profound way. While such an understanding of technology might be close to the mark when it comes to popular use, no-one who offers the concept of technology a modicum of sustained reflection will be persuaded by the prototypical definition.

The fundamental challenge to definition is that of vagueness. After offering some thoughts on the history of the idea of punishment, Nietzsche mused: all ideas, in which an entire process is semiotically summarized elude definition. Only something which has no history is capable of being defined (2009, p. 62). The concept of technology is a case in point. It is regularly drawn on by philosophers, historians, educators, policymakers, sociologists, cultural critics and others, to understand contemporary societies and their development and to make sense of ourselves as human beings. Yet, the word itself has a confusing and multifarious history, which indeed seems to render the concept an expression of an entire process semiotically summarized.