Philosophy of technology
By technology philosophy is meant to each other, both the philosophical study of the importance of technology as well as the analysis of the relationship of man, the world and technology.
History
The philosophy of technology, understood as a philosophy of art is not an invention of modern times. Rather, have, in the past already Protagoras, Plato ( in the Timaeus, in the Republic and in the Laws ) and Aristotle ( in Nicomachean Ethics, Book 6, and physics ) dealt with technology. The antiquity not severing it from the technique of the art and craftsmanship. In the Middle Ages, with its resurgent craft and the urbanization thrusts itself Albertus Magnus devoted, during the Renaissance, Giordano Bruno to the anthropologically inspired question of whether humans should be defined on the technical work. On the way to modernity, technology, science and art are increasingly separated from each other, then Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger dealt ( The Question Concerning Technology, 1949), Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School with him, each with different aspects of technology and industrialization. The focus of the philosophy of technology was and is the ambivalence of the domination of nature and nature referred awareness, the human image of the craftsman or homo faber, the relationship between technology and work, the relationship between technology and art, of technology and science, as well as the gesellschaftsstrukturierende role of technology as a whole. The ethics of technology is a branch of the philosophy of technology (qv).
The preoccupation with the theme " Technology" as its own subject area of philosophy, however, was not triggered until the late 19th century by the book " Outline of a Philosophy of Technology" (1877 ) from the Hegelian Ernst Kapp. For him, art is human organ projection, but also making culture in the broadest sense. Kapp was thus able to extract the question of the technology from the narrower field of anthropology and to expand on the question of the relevance for their culture and their realization. Therefore, the philosophy of technology in the strict sense belongs to the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the debate about their conditions and consequences, especially since the high industrialization.
The starting point of discipline formation were anthropological findings since the late 18th century, which saw the human being as a "flawed being ," that is, as compared to animals deficient in the specialization of its organs and senses, but superior., Through His Spirit Unlike other animals, man is not dependent on a specific living environment, but can and must constantly due to the absence of a separate biotope his own life to create space ( Technotop ). In this context also includes the determination of Friedrich Nietzsche that a " non- excepted fixed animal " man is. Thus man needs technology necessarily. In the 20th century Arnold Gehlen took this thesis about the flawed being human again, and integrated them into his rather pessimistic cultural anthropology. However, the above-mentioned non- conformism of man to nature was always a chance, in terms of its openness to the world - a term that in the first third of the 20th century about Max Scheler and Helmuth Plessner stress.
Although the philosophy of technology is influenced by the thinking of German Idealism, as developed in the 20th century rather materialistic positions on the specific social and economic changes through mechanization, automation and rationalization, and thus the role of the artefact, asked (for B. Gerhard Freyer, F. Gottl - Ottlilienfeld, Max Bense, Gerhard Banse, Günter Ropohl ). Some authors relate directly or indirectly to Karl Marx and his theory of alienation, others refer to certain phenomena of crisis (such as the ecological crisis ). In this context, the debate around the central character of the technology and the question of the relationship provisions of means / purpose and means / medium is important. In addition there were phenomenological positions, which asked about the relationship between technology and the world and its determinacy, as embodied for instance by Hans Blumenberg and Jacques Ellul. So varied as the positions of the philosophy of technology, so are the philosophical approaches to define the concept of technology in its dimensions. Here, the uncertainty of the technology itself to the philosophical issue.
The philosophy of technology, there are both pessimistic optimistic as - game species. It is part utopian ( utopia ) and dystopian thinking ( dystopia ) and their manifestation in fictional literature and film. More recently, the philosophy of technology devotes about the virtual reality, the information and communication technologies, biotechnologies, as well as the design of socio- technical systems and technological visions of the future.
Magic and Technology
Technology has both in antiquity ( Heron of Alexandria ) and in the Middle Ages not only the aspect of the fulfillment of purpose or benefits, but always also the magic (magic). The neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer 1930 ( in essay form and technique ) pointed out that today's technological culture already hints in the magical world view vortechnischer cultures place (Homo divinans ). Basis for technical thinking and acting is the distance from the changing nature to each. Without the distancing of the subject of the objective world can not provide technical development to take place ( Technikidealismus ). This first objectifying attitude, as the first reflection on the nature of the world and nature, the magical world view is inherent. It is based on a faith basis to influence the world through rituals and action sequences. The arbitrariness or the belief in an all-encompassing and dominant fate force ( the Divine ) so resigns already in the magical action. However, this distance relationship with nature says no objectification of nature through art.
Philosophy of technology and philosophy of science
Only the scientific- analytical test arrangement in the experiment has led during the 17th, 18th and 19th century to a theoretical separation of the subject from the object. The description of natural laws according to fixed, ahistorical principles allowed an increasingly rational description of the world ( rationalism ), which has overcome the Magic for the validity of their statement range. Here, the basic anthropological assumption of man as a flawed being, however, concerns itself not ahistorical natural law. Philosophy of technology can not therefore be transferred to the philosophy of science, but both disciplines relate since the late 19th century each other. For unexplained to this day the question of whether the technology is to be regarded as an applied science (in the sense of a purely practical implementation of laws of nature ) or whether esp. the scientific experiment not rather owes only the technology in its materiality and Zweckinstrumentalität ( eg qua apparatus and instrument). A younger, especially inspired by Bruno Latour mindset that wants to stop the separation of science and technology is that of technoscience. Philosophically arises analytically generate no more difference the problem by the differents orientations on the one hand, truth ( science) and on the other hand, fulfillment of purpose ( engineering and technical sciences ). This mindset makes for a science-policy requirement for an application orientation of the natural sciences ( applied sciences ) in their problem now and evokes the question of the meaning and purpose of the Basic Sciences and the scientific claim to truth. For the theory of technical sciences, it is problematic that the concept of artifact that refers to artificiality, utility and manual / industrial production, is transferred to the technoscience mostly in the blurring categories thing ( epistemic thing ), agent or medium ( media philosophy).
Philosophy of technology, philosophy of life and social philosophy
Increasingly, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, when Social Darwinism with the dogma of the " struggle for survival " could manifest, was the technique in dealing with various life terms. In his book Man and Technology ( 1931) combines the cultural philosopher Oswald Spengler, the problem of development of the technique with the original question of life, the struggle for power. The lead straight into the crisis of recent times (first half of the 20th century ) to catastrophic developments, especially within the Faustian culture. These are, however, fatefully accept. In this tradition are to be classified in a philosophical point of technology and the critical technology Ludwig Klages and the late Martin Heidegger.
This contrasts with, say, technology philosophies of Helmuth Plessner and ( much later ) Hans Jonas, who plead for a responsible use of technology and its gemeinschaftsstrukturierenden or - resolution power. They argue on the basis of the philosophy of life already with social philosophical intention, that is, with regard to the life of the community. On the social responsibility for the technical actions and his Materialisate later has also Günter Ropohl ( A system theory of the art, 1979) down, and it is not about the relationship of technology to the biological concept of life, but for the life of society and the question of its technocratic control is ( technocracy ). This result points of contact for the Sociology of Technology.
Both Gehlen and Cassirer and Hannah Arendt refer to the close link between technological development and the development and support of the capitalist economic system, mostly with regard to the machine and machinery. This view of the machine technology is continued in the 1960s by Helmut Schelsky and extended by the Human techniques and alignment techniques. Philosophy of technology was at least since no longer bound only to tools, machines and artifacts, but could relate to procedures used by the man on himself.
In this tradition the younger approaches that examine the relationship between technology, life and power. These include the concepts of biopower and self Technology / Technologies of the Self by Michel Foucault, the concept Biofakt and the philosophical clashes with neurological and psychological techniques.
Recent Developments
Art criticism since the 1950s
Günther Anders examined the impact of technical progress on the human psyche and its ethical and moral implications ( The antiquity of the People, Volume 1: 1956 Volume 2: 1980). Are important in his philosophical and literary works, the civilizing incisions that are marked by the dropping of the atomic bomb and the invention of television. ( Orig 1958 German 1960) by his companion Hannah Arendt In a similar tradition, but with a thrust in political philosophy, the book is the vita activa. According to Arendt, the human image of Homo faber stands in contrast to the Platonic concept of man as a political animal. Arendt's student Richard Sennett in 2008 published a book on the philosophy of technology as a history of ideas craft thought and action, the Homo faber interpreted positively, as he (she) is oriented to problem solving ( The Craftsman, German 2010).
With the ethical- moral aspect of our increasingly technological world, employed the above-mentioned moral philosopher Hans Jonas, the particular non-sustainable use of nature and the progress of medical influence moves. Again, the nuclear technology is knowledge- conductive. He introduced the discussion under the theme " The Imperative of Responsibility " (1979). It had said Jonas, a " heuristic of fear " developed that protect only before the self-destruction of man through his technique. In the longer term is needed to lead the technology only a moral responsibility. In the risk assessment, which should be further developed and used technique that disaster forecast the healing prognosis was preferable. This means that in terms said " heuristic of fear " of all techniques distance must be taken that could endanger even a low probability of humanity, even if such techniques would have the potential high benefits.
Philosophy of technology and science fiction
More recent developments include the explicit discussion of the philosophy of technology with science fiction, which is linked to a strong combination of technology and futurism. Stanisław Lem transferred in a literary thought experiment the biological theory of evolution of technical systems and speculated in this context about the possibilities of nanotechnology and distributed artificial intelligence ( The Invincible, 1964). With these and related topics, he was also in Summa Technologiae (1964). There he conceptualized his ideas of biological, technical and socio-cultural evolution, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, computer simulation, nanotechnology and technological singularity.
Transhumanists think - usually in the sense of technological optimism - about the technical evolution of the people to overcome it ( vision of the cyborg ) to.
Philosophy of Technology and the engineering profession
Another direction deals with the engineering profession in philosophical, v. a ethical sense (see also VDI). Subsequently, the philosophy of technology includes the methodological and conceptual foundations of technology assessment and technology ethics. A product of the struggle of philosophers with the requirements of the engineering profession is the VDI guideline 3780 ( " technology assessment " ) from the year 1991. Directive systematized technical values in doing what those of the formative action implies. A variety of factors that play a role in a development and design process, must be considered and merged into one whole all. Today's engineering education provides for increasing the expression of an adequate attitude of the students. The basic values of this attitude include, inter alia, economy and ecology, logic and morality, ethics and aesthetics, precision and innovation. This causes important points of contact with the design theory and related engineering sciences with many other scientific disciplines. This results in different requirements Pictures of coping with complexity ( mediation of technology and form as a coping strategy of the relationship between complexity and time - especially in the societal dimension). The so-called " factory of the future " for example, is such a research topic. For more than 20 years of computerization of traditional industries, it is now known as " industrial 4.0" a project for the future in the high-tech strategy of the German government dar.
Philosophical attempts to engineer ethics or an engineer silk to establish ( in analogy to the Hippocratic oath in medicine ) belong to this context.
Philosophy of Technology under gender aspects
Since the publication of the book by Judy Wajcman TechnoFeminism in 1994 and the work of Donna Haraway, the connection of philosophy of technology and gender is a research topic of the philosophy of technology. The Techno feminism criticizes the culturally ingrained alliance of technology and man, resulting inter alia from the history of trades and engineering studies. Another field that has supported the proximity of man and technology semantically long, is that of the military and military technology. Not least because of the close link between technology philosophy and anthropology, the question is increasingly asked whether the traditional view of man as hunter-gatherers and the woman as guardian of the fire, which is being questioned under paleoanthropologists would not have to have consequences for the engineering item About us (especially for the development of the human image from Homo faber ).
More suggestions arising from the technical education ( engineering didactics) as well as the history of technology, the technology field, always grasp as part of a manual and material culture in addition to the non-material culture.
A challenge for the future is to combine technology philosophy of intercultural philosophy and natural philosophy, as the philosophical discussion of the technology, in the form of technoscience, so far almost exclusively in relation to, Western ' categories such as enlightenment, democracy and technological progress and in consequence is mainly done by philosophers and philosophers from Western industrialized nations.
Philosophy of Technology as a scientific theory of Science and Engineering
The philosophy of technology processed, more recently, the theoretical foundation of the engineering sciences, that is, they tried the specifics of constructing from recognizing scientific methodology to the figures, conceptual and epistemological to substantiate. One of the key concepts here is the " technical knowledge".
Philosophy of Technology as an academic discipline
The technique philosophy or philosophy of technology is a recent subdiscipline of academic philosophy, ie the denomination of chairs whose future owner should focus explicitly the philosophy of technology, put the world until the 1970s, which is about a century after the philosophical foundation by Ernst Kapp one. But it is today, unlike the history of philosophy back further -reaching natural philosophy, firmly established in the philosophical teaching repertoire, also in the form of textbooks. To be machined by professors in the context of philosophy of technology areas of responsibility are often also recently joined in the denominations with the philosophy of science or philosophy of culture. Chairs of philosophy of technology today are usually located at technical universities or colleges, rarely also in art schools.
In Germany the philosophy of technology as an academic discipline in the strict sense has been in the past three decades, inter alia, by Max Bense, Hans Sachsse, Friedrich Rapp, Hans Lenk, Hans Poser, Rafael Capurro, Walther Christoph Zimmerli, Bernhard Irrgang, Gerhard Banse, Christoph Hubig, Kornwachs, Günter Ropohl and Nicole C. Karafyllis further developed ( see references ). This is the limit to philosophers and philosophers in the field of natural philosophy (eg, Gernot Böhme, Ernst Oldemeyer, Lothar Schäfer) and the philosophy of science (eg, Wolfgang Krohn, Brigitte Falkenburg, Gregor Schiemann, Alfred Nordmann ) and the phenomenology (Hans Blumenberg, Don Ihde ) and media philosophy (eg, Friedrich Kittler, Bernard Stiegler, Sybille Krämer, Gerhard Gamm, Erich Hoerl ) non-separating sharply drawn, because technology is often analyzed by opposing concepts such as nature, body or spirit philosophical. Even among theologians find technology philosophers (such as Ivan Illich ).
Are as disciplinary pioneer recently, inter alia, Andrew Feenberg, Carl Mitcham, Don Ihde and Earl R. McCormack, and, with a focus on media, even to call Marshall McLuhan In the U.S. context. For the Dutch philosophy of technology Hans Achterhuis is leading the way for the French Gaston Bachelard Gilbert Simondon, Jacques Ellul, and Bruno Latour. Both Latour and Carl Mitcham started their academic career at mining academies. In yet another sense, understood, and technology assessment on Herbert Paschen and Armin Grunwald was able to develop an academic discipline in Germany, which, however, created a genuinely interdisciplinary and stands close to the field of political consulting.
In the Anglo -Saxon philosophy of technology in recent years is often integrated in the humanities and social science-oriented degree program Science and Technology Studies.