Description: Thinking about Technology
Thinking about Technology
The author both situates us within the context of the philosophical tradition and opens us up to questions concerning our destiny as humans. This book is both well-conceived and elegantly written, and although it will find much interest among political scientists, political philosophers and those interested in the philosophy of science and technology, it also will be found accessible by generally informed, curious and concerned readers.
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
Aug, 2017
9781498549547
78,290
Political Science--History & Theory
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Chapters
Thinking about Technology
Acknowledgments
Thinking about Technology
Several years ago my fellow colleague, Ron Srigley, suggested I deliver a series of lectures to a large, mandatory first-year undergraduate class on the themes addressed in this book. Without his insistence, neither the lectures nor this book, an outgrowth of those talks, would have seen the light of day. Thank you, Ron. I also would like to acknowledge my longtime friend and confidante, Peter...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
205

Thinking about Technology
Introduction
Thinking about Technology
Thinking about technology is not the same as thinking technologically. There is no lack of the latter these days. On the contrary, it is ever-present if for no other reason than thinking today is identified with thinking technologically, with the problem-solving mentality. It is not an exaggeration to say that to the extent we think, we think instrumentally. Understanding for us is in the service...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
1,606

Thinking about Technology
1 - Open and Shut
Thinking about Technology
As a point of departure, let us consider a time and place long before the technological era. Let’s enter a world that did not situate at its center the technological imperative and the accompanying notion that “man is the measure of all things.”As recited in Plato’s Theaetetus, Protagoras...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
9,667

Thinking about Technology
2 - The Ethos of Technology
Thinking about Technology
Highlighting the erotic dimension of human experience is a prelude to thinking about technology. Ultimately, thinking about technology is an exercise in reflecting on eros. Socrates understood well that the human mystery is rooted in the perception of this world. The world of common experience, by virtue of its perceived orderliness, suggested to him the existence of a more encompassing...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
7,468

Thinking about Technology
3 - The Problem with Technology
Thinking about Technology
Having examined the ethos of technology, we are in a position to probe further into what is problematic about its characteristic spirit. As mentioned in the introduction, one troublesome aspect is the expanse and grip of the technological vision. Technology is a global phenomenon. Unlike any worldview before it, technology is truly a planetary world picture. It seeks its completion in the...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
11,677

Thinking about Technology
4 - Evil and the Empire of Good
Thinking about Technology
It is time to expand our analysis in a way that brings it into closer contact with an especially perspicacious reading of technology. To be consistent with the claim regarding the perspectival nature of perception, it cannot be asserted here that this alternative reading is a “true” reading. But it can and will be...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
9,884

Thinking about Technology
5 - Hall of Mirrors
Thinking about Technology
“The rules of the game”: what an evocative way to convey the order of things and how refreshingly at odds with the contemporary preference. We moderns are nothing if not serious about reality. Enormous resources today are expended plumbing its depths, getting to the bottom of the real with our measuring,...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
7,369

Thinking about Technology
6 - Our Faith
Thinking about Technology
Faith, hope, and things not seen. What do these intangibles have to do with technology? Ours is the age of the tool and exploitable knowledge. No new scientific...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
5,994

Thinking about Technology
7 - Thinking Past Technology
Thinking about Technology
In the last chapter we explored the nature of our collective commitment to technologism and summarized the consequences of an adherence to the efficiency principle. More generally, it has been argued to date that thinking about technology leads to suspending belief in the technological worldview. It now is time to ask if our deconstruction of technology lends itself to a positive vision of the...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
13,963

Thinking about Technology
8 - Living Among Things
Thinking about Technology
Do we need the world? Does living among things matter anymore? Thinking about technology helps raise questions of this sort. It also helps answer them. Our complicity in the technological project suggests we do not. The flip side of the fact that technology does not need us is that we do not need what technology...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
1,922

Thinking about Technology
9 - Less Is More
Thinking about Technology
Perspective matters. What you see depends on where you stand. This is equally true of visual perception as seeing with the mind’s eye. I have tried in this study to present a big picture view of technology, an alleged under-visualized picture. This expansive intellectual image required we step back from the immediacy of the technological order. The goal was to look at the phenomenon called...
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
3,954

Thinking about Technology
Bibliography
Thinking about Technology
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
2,369

Thinking about Technology
Index
Thinking about Technology
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Gil Germain
Lexington Books
1,765

Thinking about Technology
About the Author
Thinking about Technology
Gil Germain is a professor of political thought in the University of Prince Edward Island’s department of political science. His previously published books include A Discourse on Disenchantment: Reflections on Politics and Technology (SUNY, 1993) and Spirits in the Material World: The Challenge of Technology (Lexington Books, 2009).
Gil Germain
Lexington Books
108

Illustrations