Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry

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Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry Page 48

by Albert Borgmann

Lauterburg, Christoph, 122–23

  Lawfulness and the intelligibility of reality, 19, 21, 68–69, 70

  Laws, scientific, 19–21; in historical explanation, 22–23; complementarity of, and of conditions, 68–70. See also Explanation: scientific or apodeictic

  Layzer, David, 69

  Le Corbusier (Charles Édouard Jeanneret-Gris), 64–65

  Legality, defined, 289–90n.1; versus morality, 228–30

  Leiss, William, 53–54, 252n.8, 253n.7, 257n.5, 265nn.21 and 25, 268n.62, 269n.1, 274n.4

  Leisure: as the goal of technology, 125; evaluated by the standards of traditional excellence, 127–29. See also Commodity, final; Technology, foreground of

  Leopold, Aldo, 284n.13

  Leslie, John, 285n.41

  Levin, Margarita Rosa, 255n.4

  Levin, Michael E., 255n.4

  Liberal democratic theory: root concepts of, 89; equality of opportunity in, 90; and the good society, 91–93, 94–97, 170–71; historical sketch of, 86–89; moral principle of, 87–88; enacted as technology, 88–93, 96–101; shelters technology from examination, 86, 92–93, 94, 126; and tradition, 93. See also Democracy

  Life-style as a collage of commodities, 54, 92

  Linder, Staffan B., 145, 259n.8, 264n.1, 274n.4, 277n.57

  Lovins, Amory B., 165

  Lucas, Robert C., 283n.1

  McGovern, George, 167

  Machine: versus structure, 66–68; as the symbol of technology, 57–58, 64–65

  Machinery: as the character of the industrial era, 59–60; and commodity as the crucial features of the device paradigm, 4; has the tendency to shrink, 43; varies without affecting its commodity, 43; concealment of, 44, 47–48; demeaned in technology, 247; disburdens, 44; given final status in technology, 247, 292n.2; organizational, 117. See also Commodity; Device; Device paradigm

  MacIntyre, Alasdair, 170, 172, 208–9, 255n.11, 263n.3, 272n.15, 275n.9, 282n.9, 287n.33

  Mackey, Robert, 252n.6

  Maclean, Norman, 201

  McMullin, Ernan, 255n.14

  Macpherson, C. B., 86–88, 97–98, 263n.8, 268n.46, 271n.18

  Malcolm, Norman, 283n.25

  Mannheim, Bilha, 291n.34

  Marcuse, Herbert, 83–85

  Mark, E. M., 254n.1

  Market system: and the environmental crisis, 165–66; and liberal democratic theory, 87; and the local, labor-intensive economy, 241

  Marks, Robert, 262n.39

  Martin, L. John, 253n.1 (Ch. 4)

  Marx, Karl, 84–85, 259n.5, 276n.36

  Marx, Leo, 183, 188–89, 258n.13, 261n.3, 275n.25

  Marxists: and the rule of the capitalists versus the rule of technology, 81–82; critique of Western democracies, 82–85; inadequacy of their critique of technology, 83–85; view of human nature of, 265n.22; and the problem of identifying the ruling class, 82–83; and the instrumentalist view of technology, 10–11

  Maturity required in technology, 194, 212

  Maurer, Reinhart, 265n.21

  Meadows, Donella H., 278n.16

  Means and ends: ambiguity of the distinction, 63–64, 220–21; whether distinction of, is applicable to production and consumption, 58–59; division of, in the device, 43–44, 61–64; division of, healed in focal practices, 202–3, 205, 208–9; alleged imbalance of, in technology, 57, 60–63, 247, 292n.7; interpenetration of, in Heidegger, 259n.7. See also Commodity; Machinery

  Meier, Hugo A., 257n.13 (Ch. 8), 261n.2, 275n.25

  Melville, Herman, 201

  Mesthene, Emmanuel G., 258n.2, 275n.20

  Metatechnological things and practices, 215, 247–48. See also Focal things and practices

  Method subordinate to substantive concern, 68

  Metlay, Daniel, 253n.3 (Ch. 4), 269n.5, 270n.5

  Meyer, Niels I., 290n.14

  Microelectronics, 47, 125, 148–53

  Military armament, 114, 172, 281–82n.8

  Mill, John Stuart, 86–87, 175

  Miller, M. W., 254n.1

  Minas, Anne C., 74

  Mind and body united in focal practices, 203

  Mitcham, Carl, 12–15, 252n.6, 258n.21, 290n.11

  Moore, Charles W., 244, 262n.40, 286n.2, 292n.43

  Morality: alleged chaos of, 170, 172, 173; as promoted by conservatives, 93–94, 229–30; interwoven with economy and society in pre-technological settings, 141, 207–8; versus legality, 228–30; open in liberal democracies, 170–71; supposed neutrality of, in the political realm, 94–95; as the basis for a critique of technology, 144, 173–74, 228; destroyed by technology, 144; exploited by technology, 141; overlay of, in technology, 171–73; as undergirding technology, 132, 135

  Mumford, Lewis, 238–39, 258n.21, 262n.34, 263n.42, 273n.18, 298n.29

  Music as a focal practice, 4–5, 221–22, 225

  Musicianship, 126–29, 225

  Naess, Arne, 285n.42

  Nagel, Thomas, 267n.34

  Nash, Roderick, 183

  Nature, conquest of, 36. See also Environmental crisis; Wilderness

  Newman, John Henry, 283n.26

  Nie, Norman H., 270n.6

  Nielsen, Kai, 269n.72

  Norman, Colin, 274n.47

  Nozick, Robert, 282n.17, 282–83n.20, 283n.27, 291n.17

  Nuclear armament. See Military armament

  Nuclear power generation, 165

  Nunn, Clyde Z., 253n.1 (Ch. 4), 254n.7 (Ch. 4)

  O’Brien, George, 277n.56

  Optimists, unwarranted pessimism of, 145, 289n.31

  Organization as an instance of the device paradigm, 117, 272n.15

  Orientation in a pretechnological setting, 79

  Orientation in technology: provided by advertisements, 55; according to the device paradigm, 105, 108; in the face of the environmental crisis, 147; appearance of disorientation, 79; displacement of morality by the device paradigm, 135

  Packard, Vance, 284n.11

  Panofsky, Erwin, 280n.5

  Paradigm. See Explanation, paradigmatic or paradeictic; Device paradigm

  Pascal, Blaise, 175

  Paternalism, 92

  Pattern. See Explanation, paradigmatic or paradeictic; Device paradigm

  Penney, Alexandra, 203

  Perrin, Noel, 291n.18

  Pessimism, unwarranted, of the optimists, 145, 289n.31

  Petersen, K. Helveg, 290n.14

  Petrocik, John R., 270n.6

  Phaff, H. J., 254n.1

  Philosophical discourse as metapoetical and metapolitical, 188

  Philosophy of technology and social analysis, 6–7, 8

  Physics, 18

  Pirsig, Robert M., 160–62, 201, 260n.34

  Plato, 274n.5

  Pluralism, shallow and profound, 228–30. See also Focal things and practices, plurality of; Social union

  Poetry: as deictic discourse, 179; as a focal practice, 217

  Pöggeler, Otto, 258n.23

  Polanyi, Karl, 257n.8

  Political discourse: in liberal democracies, 169–70; as deictic discourse, 179; difficulty of, as deictic discourse, 227–28; forums for, as deictic, 232; continuum between, and private deictic discourse, 234; emancipation from technology through deictic, 239–40

  Political engagement, 107–9, 113. See also Democracy, participatory

  Politics: as a guide for technology, 10; in the service of technology, 11; as the technological metadevice, 113. See also Democracy; Government; Liberal democratic theory

  Porter, Dennis, 277n.64

  Positional goods, 132

  Posner, Richard A., 271n.13

  Poverty, 112, 113. See also Inequality; Third World

  Power based on affluence 82–83

  Practice. See Focal things and practices

  Problem stating, 17, 24

  Productivity and reliability as goals of the division of work, 117

  Progress: in science, 24–26, 28–29; effect of scientific progress on art, religion, and politics, 26, 29; loss of deictic power in scientific progress, 26; in technology, 41�
��42, 258n.14

  Public goods. See Social goods

  Pursell, Carroll, 257–58n.13, 273n.17, 291n.29

  Quality of life: and microelectronics, 150–51; versus standard of living, 234–36. See also Wealth

  Rainwater, Lee, 266n.19, 270n.11, 271n.14

  Rawls, John: and the just versus the good society, 95–97; on drawing strong conclusions from weak assumptions, 175; on defining practices through rules, 209; on self-realization according to the Aristotelian Principle, 213–15; and the liabilities of dominant ends, 214–15, 218; keeps the contingent and historical at bay, 217–18, 289n.20; his reflective equilibrium, 215, 217, 254n.7 (Ch. 4); on social union, 266n.3; and the meaning of opportunity, 267n.38

  Real, Michael R., 276n.39

  Reid, Herbert G., 263n.3

  Religion: Christianity, 207, 287n.41; as deictic explanation, 26; and running, 204; how affected by scientific progress, 26, 29. See also Divinity; Morality

  Rescher, Nicholas, 270n.13, 275n.26

  Rights: basis of, 193; civil, 91, 93–94, 229–30; of humans and of nature, 192–93

  Robinson, John P., 273n.43, 275n.16

  Rodman, John, 263n.9, 284nn.16 and 18

  Rokeach, Milton, 264n.10

  Roll, Charles W., Jr., 270n.13

  Rolston, Holmes, III, 283n.28, 284n.21

  Romanticism, 224

  Rombach, Heinrich, 264n.12

  Rorty, Richard, 257n.1

  Rosenblatt, Roger, 289n.28

  Rossi, Paolo, 256n.6, 258n.21, 262n.32

  Rotsch, Melvin M., 258n.3

  Rubin, Lillian Breslow, 138, 270n.15, 271n.26

  Running as a focal practice, 201–4; simplicity of, 202; unity of achievement and enjoyment in, 202–3; engages mind and body, 203; social engagement in, 203–4; and the divine, 204

  Sachsse, Hans, 265n.21

  Sacred and the profane, 190, 284–85n.29

  Salmon, Wesley C., 255n.6

  Schneewind, J. B., 273n.40

  Scholarship, significance of, for a theory of technology, 5–6

  Schrank, Jeffrey, 260n.7

  Schumacher, E. F., 144, 145, 146, 166, 168, 234, 278n.3, 289n.27, 291n.36

  Schwartz, Adina, 267n.34, 273n.20

  Schwartz, Tony, 279n.29

  Science: senses of, 17; distinguished from technology, 17, 29–31, 50; as a microtheory, 22; public understanding of, 28; as a substantive world view, 28–31. See also Explanation; Social science

  Scientific instrumentalism, 19, 30

  Scientific realism, 18–19, 30, 70

  Scitovsky, Tibor, 130–31, 264n.1, 274n.2, 290n.17

  Scully, Vincent, 197

  Seashore, Stanley E., 273n.42

  Self-realization in liberal democratic theory, 89, 213–14. See also Excellence

  Sennett, Richard, 106–7, 275n.10

  Sessions, George, 280n.21

  Sheehan, George, 201–4, 212–13, 214, 215, 292n.46

  Shriver, Donald W., Jr., 252n.6

  Significance. See Substantive concern

  Simon, Herbert A., 279n.20

  Simson, Otto von, 268n.62, 280n.5, 283n.24

  Singer, Peter, 284n.18

  Skill: as the capacity for engagement, 42; in technological work, 118–19. See also Expertise

  Skinner, B. F., 256n.8

  Skyscraper, 66–67

  Smith, Adam, 115

  Social goods: defined, 132; within the device paradigm, 134–35; supposed neutrality of, 95–97; and the reform of technology, 235–36

  Social problems, whether convertible into technological problems, 164–65

  Social realm, complexity of, 69–70

  Social science: ambiguity of data in, 16, 101, 105, 121, 277n.68; apodeictic orientation in, 70–72; attempt at deriving strong conclusions from weak assumptions, 175–76; paradigmatic explanation in, 74–76; quantitative analysis in, 61; and theories of technology, 8

  Social union, 213, 266n.3

  Socolow, Robert, 67, 185–86

  Sörensen, Villy, 290n.14

  Space in technology and in focal practices, 67, 79, 191, 242–44

  Spaceship Earth, 146–47

  Standard of living: and the GNP, 291n.24; versus the quality of life, 234–36; versus wealth of engagement, 245

  Stankey, George H., 283n.1

  Stanley, Manfred, 108, 170–71, 174–75, 228, 263n.10, 269nn.2 and 3, 282–83n.20

  Steam engine, 57, 116

  Steinberg, Danny, 255n.3

  Stereo set as an example of a device, 3–4, 53

  Stobaugh, Robert, 279n.18

  Stone, Christopher D., 147, 185

  Structure distinguished from machine, 66–68, 243–44

  Stuart, Granville, 37

  Sturt, George, 44–47, 258n.4

  Substantive concern: prior to method, 68; and critique of technology, 157; animates deictic discourse, 188; and human freedom, 102–3; as a guide for paradigmatic explanation, 77–78. See also Focal things and practices

  Suskind, Charles, 251n.2 (Ch. 2)

  Sussman, Herbert L., 261n.11

  Swain, Roger B., 201

  Sweezy, Paul M., 83–84, 259n.5

  Sympathy, 176–77, 178

  Table, the culture of, as a focal practice, 201–2, 204–6; and our intimacy with the world, 204; as a gathering of tradition and environment, 204–5; has the power to heal, 206

  Taviss, Irene, 269n.5

  Taylor, Frederick, 117

  Technological fix, 164–65

  Technology:

  —ambivalence about, 55–56, 106–7, 161

  —appropriate, 166–68

  —critique of: necessary and sufficient conditions for, 176; in terms of traditional morality, 144, 173–74, 228; appropriate vocabulary for, 282n.13

  —diffidence regarding its ends, 55–56, 62, 138

  —empirical evidence for people’s attitude toward, 105–7

  —foreground of: difficulty of a clear view of, 48–49; as a collage of commodities, 54; and final commodities, 139–43

  —future of, 148, 248–49

  —irony of, 38–39, 172–73

  —liberation through, 36, 139–40

  —orientation in, 55, 79, 105, 108, 135, 147. See also Orientation in technology

  —periphery of normalcy, 140

  —promise of, 35–40; origin of, 35–36, 39–40; today, 37–39; and the microelectronic revolution, 125; most purely present in television, 142; recovery of, 153

  —reform of: within versus of the device paradigm, 162–63, 219–20; requirements for, 157–58; through economics, 230–32, 234–40; openings for, 227–28, 230–33; central versus piecemeal, 163–64; sound versus frivolous, 163–64, 166; personal or private, 221–26; public or collective, 226–46; as the recognition and restraint of the device paradigm, 220–22; how radical and remarkable, 220–21; reaches a point of stability, 240–41

  —responsibility for: scope and location of, 63, 84, 102–4, 108–9; as implication in technology, 104–7; as complicity with technology, 105, 143, 173

  —sense of: defined, 3, 13; broad and narrow, 8, 13; instrumentalist, 10–11, 102; pluralist, 11; substantive, 9–10, 14, 102. See also Device paradigm; Explanation: paradigmatic or paradeictic

  —stability of, 143–53; threatened by self-destruction, 144–46, self-righting, 145–48, 165–66

  —theory of: kinds of, 7–11; requirements for, 11–12

  Teitelman, Michael, 267n.34

  Television: time spent on watching, 128–29; eminently in tune with the device paradigm, 142–43; indoctrination versus displacement effect, 141

  Television set as an example of a device, 43, 50, 142

  Temple, Greek, as a focal thing, 159, 197, 199

  Tenne, Ruth, 291n.34

  Terkel, Studs, 232, 273n.43

  Theory: Aristotelian, 6, 25; choice of, 12–15 (see also Substantive concern); and metatheory, 6–7; kinds of, of technology, 7–12

  Thing. See Focal things and practices

  Third World: and the
progress of technology, 114, 148, 149–50, 166; and the reform of technology, 225–26, 245

  Thompson, E. P., 272n.1

  Thompson, William Irwin, 292nn.41 and 46

  Thoreau, Henry David, 201, 261n.4

  Thurow, Lester C., 231, 271nn.12 and 15, 291nn.24 and 37, 292n.40

  Tillich, Paul, 282n.18

  Time in technology and in focal practices, 79, 191

  Toffler, Alvin, 274n.3, 279nn.22 and 28

  Tolerance, 176–78, 212–13; as respect and indifference, 95

  Tools, 10

  Tradition: and liberal democratic policy, 93, 173–74; as a technological resource, 55, 141; and the reform of technology, 224. See also Excellence: traditional; Morality; Virtues: traditional

  Trakl, Georg, 286n.21

  Tribe, Laurence H., 60–61, 147, 186

  Turner, Frederick Jackson, 184, 283n.8

  Unemployment, 123–24, 239, 291n.37. See also Work

  Unger, Roberto Mangabeira, 170, 272n.15, 290n.2

  Values: affinity of, with technology, 80–31, 158; and deictic discourse, 186–87; as recollections and anticipations of focal practices, 81, 224; as guides for technology, 10, 79–81, 158; hard and soft, 80–81; opaque and translucent, 188

  Verba, Sidney, 270n.6

  Village life, 136, 168–69, 281n.46

  Virtues: of appropriate technology, 167; as capacities for focal things and practices, 224–26; today, 275n.9; traditional, 126–29. See also Excellence

  Vojta, George J., 119–20, 123

  Voting, 109

  Wade, Nicholas, 253n.3 (Ch. 4)

  Walker, Timothy, 59–60

  Wartofsky, Marx W., 252n.3, 255nn.10 and 11, 256n.6

  Watch, wrist, as an example of a device, 43, 149

  Wealth distinguished from technological affluence, 223–24

  Weber, Max, 272n.15

  Weber, Ronald, 160, 278n.15

  Weinberg, Alvin M., 164–65

  Weingartner, Rudolph H., 255n.2

  Weizenbaum, Joseph, 260n.35, 279n.34

  Wessel, Milton R., 268n.57

  Wheelwright’s shop, 44–47

  Wiesner, Jerome B., 38–39, 258n.20

  Wilderness: as a challenge to technology, 184–85; ambiguity of the challenge, 185; and the conquest of the North American Continent, 182–85; calls forth engagement, 191–92; inversion of technology and of, 189–90; teaches us to accept and limit technology, 193–95

  Wilford, John Noble, 280n.3

  Wine, fermentation of, explained, 17–18; as an example of a device, 27–28

  Wingo, Lowdon, 234

  Winn, Marie, 277n.60

  Winner, Langdon, 60–63, 102, 252nn.5 and 17, 253n.2 (Ch. 3), 257n.1, 260n.33, 265nn.16 and 21, 281n.31, 286n.16, 291n.30

 

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