Philosophy of Technology

Created: Tue May 27 2025 02:00:00 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time)

Just notes at the moment.

The Greeks

Nature and Tech

Plato - tech imitates or learns from nature Artistotle - technè fills in what nature cannot do

“Whereas science aims to understand the world as it is, technology aims to change the world.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Natural Things & Artifacts

Aristotle - natural things, have generation and motion inside. To generate, meaning offspring? To have motion inside, meaning that it is created from within and not from humans? Well, what about software and different versions, or machine learning.

Material, Formal, Efficient, Final

Teleological - the purpose they serve rather than the cause that they arise. Meaning, looking at the why something exists, rather than, what caused them to exist.

Technological Images

Demiurge - creator of the world, someone who maintains the physical aspect. An artisan.

Tech images - the rational design of the universe

The world through artisans who make.

Humanities philosophy of technology

“since technology originates from the goals and values of humans.”

Black box - not to understand or anylze it but to see it’s relationship to:

• morality
• politics
• structure of society
• human culture
• human condition
• metaphysics

Approaches in the Ethics of Technology

Political - Marx, material structure of production → eco-socio structure of society. Meaning, those who get to produce and make determine society. “A number of philosophers, for example, have pleaded for a democratization of technological development and the inclusion of ordinary people in the shaping of technology (Winner 1983; Sclove 1995; Feenberg 1999).” - What about OPEN SOURCE?

Where does technology come from?

As a Canadian, I know Marshall McLuhan for media studies and attribute him for the quote that technology is an extension of ourselves. But as I get into looking up the origins of philosophy of technology, I've come across a German philosopher named Ernst Kapp who devised the "organ projection" theory which predates McLuhan.

What is the essence of technology?

Martin Heidegger, a nazi and also a German philosopher, who has been influential in the development of philosophy of technology.

Technology is not an instrument.

• Seeing the world as a raw material.
• We are now forcing things come into being.
• A power plant forces the Rhine to be a source of energy. Forces the river to produce energy. It's an outcome of understanding that everything in the world is a raw material to be manipulated and controlled.
  • Contemporary technology, data as a raw material.
• In contrast, Techne or a crafts person help things emerge, come into being.

Technology is not a product of human activity.

• Sounds like an existential point of view. A fate, something that was sent to us from outside. We can't exert control on it.
• Born into a specific time that informs our understanding.

Technology is the ultimate danger.

• Technology can prevent us from having deeper interpretations of reality.
• The moment we see ourselves as raw material, we stop seeing ourselves as a place where new interpretations can emergy. Sounds similar trying to optimize ourselves to be efficient, to be productive which can limit what it means to be human.
• Technology can lock us into a specific worldview, that is trying to have control.
• "Releasement" acknowleding technology is here and that it shapes our world but also keeping a distance. Yes & No at same time. Paradox. This openess and awareness can foster new interpretations of reality.
  • This paradox, this duality, reminds me of the concept by Jaques Derria of the pharmakon. That technology can be a cure and a poison.

Bibliography

FRANSSEN, Maarten, LOKHORST, Gert-Jan and VAN DE POEL, Ibo, 2024. Philosophy of Technology. In : ZALTA, Edward N. and NODELMAN, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [online]. Fall 2024. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/technology/ [accessed 24 April 2025].

KAPP, Ernst et al., 2018. Elements of a philosophy of technology: on the evolutionary history of culture. Minneapolis (Minn.) : University of Minnesota press. Posthumanities, 47. ISBN 978-1-5179-0226-1.

VERBEEK, Peter-Paul. The Technological View of the World of Martin Heidegger. FutureLearn [online]. Retrieved from : https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog [accessed 27 April 2025].