Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Technology: Liberation or Enslavement?
- Do the Successes of Technology Evidence the Truth of Theories
- Instrument and Reality: The Case of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
- Realism and Progress: Why Scientists should be Realists
- Quantum Technology: Where to Look for the Quantum Measurement Problem
- Welcome to Wales: Searle on the Computational Theory of Mind
- Acts, Omissions and Keeping Patients Alive in a Persistent Vegetative State
- Technology and Culture in a Developing Country
- Art and Technology: An Old Tension
- Tools, Machines and Marvels
- Values, Means and Ends
- Question Time
- Notes on Contributors
- Index of Names
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Technology: Liberation or Enslavement?
- Do the Successes of Technology Evidence the Truth of Theories
- Instrument and Reality: The Case of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
- Realism and Progress: Why Scientists should be Realists
- Quantum Technology: Where to Look for the Quantum Measurement Problem
- Welcome to Wales: Searle on the Computational Theory of Mind
- Acts, Omissions and Keeping Patients Alive in a Persistent Vegetative State
- Technology and Culture in a Developing Country
- Art and Technology: An Old Tension
- Tools, Machines and Marvels
- Values, Means and Ends
- Question Time
- Notes on Contributors
- Index of Names
Summary
The essays collected here do not constitute a philosophy of technology, in the sense which, for instance, Don Ihde requires. According to Ihde the philosopher of technology must reflectively analyse technology in such a way ‘as to illuminate features of the phenomenon of technology itself’. The contributors to this volume do not concern themselves with the essentialist enterprise of defining technology; they more or less take it for granted that the reader is familiar with a variety of technologies such as Information Technology, and proceed from there. Hence the title is the conjunctive one of Philosophy and Technology.
That contemporary philosophy has become more self-consciously concerned with the impact of technology on human nature and society is undeniably. Witness for instance the philosophical growth areas of Environmental and Medical Ethics. This interest is surely in part a consequence of environmental disasters such as the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and advances in medical technology such as organ transplantation. Again, advances in computer science and technology have suggested new ways for self-understanding and the re-organisation of society.
The modern world contains a vast array of technologies, and the contributors to this book respond to some of them with different concerns, so there is no one underlying theme running throughout. Nevertheless, one may discern that, in general, the contributors adopt one of two approaches. The first is concerned, quite generally, with the impact of technology on culture and society, and the second is concerned with philosophical questions raised by particular technologies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Philosophy and Technology , pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995