Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

J. Robert Oppenheimer -(citing his translation of the Hindu, Sanskrit text, 'Bhagavad-gita' after witnessing the first atomic bomb detonation at Trinity Site, just west of Socorro, New Mexico on July 16, 1945).

Introduction

Dr. Robert Hollinger, of ISU's Department of Philosophy, reviews key features of western philosophies of technology from Aristotle to Habermas. Dr. Hollinger presents us with more than just a history of philosophical perspectives on technology; he describes a way of understanding different perspectives used to evaluate it today.


Compass

    Key Questions

      What are the ways in which people think about technology?

    Examples

      Is technology inherently good or bad or neither?

      Do persons opposed to new agricultural technologies adequately understand the technology and its potential benefits? Are persons opposed to new agricultural technologies irrational in their thinking about the technology?

      Are proponents of new agricultural technologies insensitive to the needs of the public? Are proponents of new agricultural technologies driven primarily by greed in their support of the new technology?

      Do our regulatory agencies do a good job of ensuring the safety of new agricultural technologies?



Philosophy of Technology: Classical, Enlightenment, Critical

Classical Greek Philosophy
Greek Typology of the Three Forms of Knowledge:
    Theoretical Knowledge: Knowledge about the immutable laws of the cosmos (e.g., physics, math, astronomy). Knowledge about things that can be directly observed.

    Practical Knowledge: Knowledge related to social life (e.g., politics, ethics, social interaction). Wisdom gained from experience with living.

    Productive Knowledge: Knowledge about how to do things (e.g., technology). Knowledge and skills required to achieve goals.
Plato considered productive knowledge (i.e., technology) to be the direct (i.e., unbiased, value-free) outcome of theoretical knowledge. Thus, technology was neither good nor bad, but the natural outcome of deductive reasoning from the immutable laws of nature. This viewpoint implies that persons without theoretical knowledge are unqualified to question technology and its consequences.

Aristotle also viewed these three forms of knowledge as relatively distinct. Aristotle's viewpoint, however, recognized that theoretical knowledge sometimes can be rather brutal in practice.


Application in Context

    How does the classical Greek philosophy affect perspectives on technology today?
    Michael Fumento voices strong concerns about the qualifications and integrity of consumer groups who question the efficacy of agricultural technologies. His viewpoints on Bogus Biotech offer a contemporary example of the classical philosophy of technology.

    A technology related to the genetic modification of food is the "terminator" seed--a seed that produces a plant with sterile seeds. Thus, a farmer would not be able to save seed from year to year, but instead would have to buy new seed each year. Many objections have been raised about the brutal consequences of this technology for subsistence farmers in developing countries. The Union of Concerned Scientists describes these objections and asks the U.S. Department of Agriculture to drop its patents on such seeds.

Enlightenment Philosophy
Enlightenment refers to the rise of science as a respected form of knowledge acquisition that can be used to solve practical problems. From the Enlightenment perspective, knowledge is power and progress is good. The technological imperative (or technological fix) is the view that all practical problems can be viewed as technical problems and all technical problems can be informed by scientific theory.

Note that the development of sociology during the Enlightenment period represented a dramatic break from the classical Greek philosophy that theoretical knowledge (science) could not be applied to practical (social) problems.


Application in Context

    How does the Enlightenment philosophy affect perspectives on technology today?
    Is the human race better off today than it was 1,000 years ago? This question is a matter of opinion; but it is certain that the scientific approach has produced a vast knowledge base that has been used to make dramatic changes in our environment and behavior. The presentation by the Council for Biotechnology Information regarding the many potential benefits of the genetic modification of foods provides a contemporary example of Enlightenment philosophy.



Critical philosophy
From the Enlightenment perspective, science provides a means to dominate nature through an ongoing process of improving technology and solving social problems. From an Enlightenment perspective, all problems, including social problems, are seen as technological in nature (e.g., the solution to crime is more prisons and longer sentences for convicted felons).

From the Critical perspective, Enlightenment philosophy contains an inherent flaw in defining all problems from the point of view of the technological imperative. It states that Enlightenment philosophy, if taken to the extreme, can result in politics, religion, and social life being viewed as technically governed and therefore subject to technically-defined solutions, which can effectively eliminate much of the power of people to govern themselves. Critical philosophy views Enlightenment philosophy as not necessarily malevolent by nature, but flawed because it leads to unworkable, unethical solutions.

Critical philosophy "looks behind" the development of technology to view the motivations involved in producing the technology, the assumptions made about its safety and proper use, and the ethics implied by noting who will be most benefited by the technology. Critical philosophy pays particular interest in how the power elite of a society influences technology development and dissemination. Critical philosophy does not necessarily posit malevolent intentions of the power elite in their influence over technology development and dissemination; people sometimes are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions and sometimes seemingly benign actions bring about negative consequences. Whether intentionally malevolent or not, critical philosophy notes that power and resources, including risks, are shared disproportionately. The less powerful will bear more than an equal share of technological risks because technology is developed by and for the benefit of the powerful elite. Marxian social philosophy, as one form of critical philosophy, would anticipate a malevolent purpose of the power elite to control society and distribute risks inequitably. From a Marxian point of view, the power elite always attempts to exploit resources from the less powerful.


Application in Context

    How does the critical philosophy affect perspectives on technology today?
    The Center for Food Safety offers a good example of the use of critical philosophy to examine the societal implications of genetically modified foods as well as other controversial technologies.



Resolution of Enlightenment and Critical Philosophies
Is there some way to resolve differences between Enlightenment and Critical philosophies of technology?

Philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas and others note that society must learn to:
  1. keep abreast of technological advances, and,
  2. establish institutions to control the direction and use of technology in an ethical manner.
This strategy seeks separability between the good and bad consequences of technology. Critical to this strategy is that:
  1. citizens to be active in learning about technology and influencing public policy, and
  2. societal institutions must be responsive to citizen input.
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