The philosophy of technology, a sprawling sub-discipline nestled within the broader landscape of philosophy, dedicates its considerable intellect to dissecting the very essence of technology and its intricate, often insidious, effects on the tapestry of human society. This isn't some fleeting modern concern; the echoes of philosophical inquiry into technology, or its ancient Greek progenitor techne, resonate from the very genesis of Western philosophy. The term "philosophy of technology" itself emerged in the twilight of the 19th century, a brainchild of the German-born philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp, who gifted the world his seminal work, Elements of a Philosophy of Technology (or Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik in its original German).
History
Greek Philosophy
The Western lexicon for "technology" owes its lineage to the Greek word techne, signifying art or craft knowledge. Consequently, philosophical examinations of technology are deeply interwoven with the foundational threads of Western philosophy. A prevailing current in Greek thought posited that techne sprang forth as a deliberate imitation of the natural world – the intricate art of weaving, for instance, supposedly born from observing the industrious spider. This perspective found favor with luminaries such as Heraclitus and Democritus. Even Aristotle, in his profound work Physics, acknowledged this imitative impulse, yet he also posited that techne possessed the capacity to transcend nature, to "complete what nature cannot bring to a finish." He further articulated a fundamental ontological distinction: nature, or physis, possesses an inherent principle of generation and motion, an internal telos or final cause. Techne, conversely, is shaped by an external agent and guided by an external telos. Natural entities strive towards an inherent purpose and propagate themselves; techne, by its very definition, does not. In a similar vein, Plato, within his Timaeus, envisioned the cosmos as the meticulous creation of a divine craftsman, the Demiurge, who fashioned the universe according to immutable eternal forms, much like an artisan consults blueprints. Plato, in his Laws, further suggested that human craftsmanship is, in essence, an imitation of this divine creative act.
Middle Ages to the 19th Century
The epochs of the Roman Empire and late antiquity saw the creation of practical treatises, such as Vitruvius' De Architectura from the 1st century BC, and Agricola's De Re Metallica in 1556. Medieval Scholastic philosophy largely adhered to the classical notion of technology as a mimicry of nature. It was during the Renaissance that Francis Bacon emerged as a pioneering modern voice, contemplating the profound societal impact of technology. His utopian vision, presented in New Atlantis (1627), painted a future where a fictional institution, Salomon's House, harnessed the power of natural philosophy and technology to expand humanity's dominion over nature, ostensibly for the collective good and the enhancement of living conditions. The stated objective of this imagined foundation was "...the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."
19th Century
The truly seminal work in this field, from a European perspective, arrived in 1877 with the publication of Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik by the German philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp. Deeply influenced by Hegel, Kapp proposed a theory of technique as an outward projection of human organs. For this reason, Kapp is widely recognized as the progenitor of the philosophy of technology within the European intellectual tradition.
Simultaneously, a contrasting, more materialistic perspective on technology began to coalesce, drawing heavily from the ideas of Benjamin Franklin and Karl Marx. This viewpoint would exert considerable influence on the trajectory of 20th-century technological philosophy.
20th Century to Present
The early 20th century witnessed a surge of philosophical engagement with the profound impact of modern technology on the human condition. Figures such as John Dewey, Martin Heidegger, Herbert Marcuse, Günther Anders, and Hannah Arendt all grappled with technology's central role in contemporary life. While Dewey generally maintained a more optimistic stance, Heidegger, Anders, Arendt, and Marcuse expressed significant reservations and critiques. Heidegger, in particular, was concerned with the concealed essence of technology, which he termed Gestell or Enframing. He saw in this essence both the greatest danger and the greatest possibility for humanity. His seminal reflections on technology are most notably found in The Question Concerning Technology.
Technological determinists, such as Jacques Ellul, argued vehemently against the simplistic notion of technology as a mere tool. They contended that modern technology constitutes a singular, monolithic, and inherently deterministic force, shaping society rather than being shaped by it. Ellul posited that the contemporary technological world-system is driven by its own internal imperatives of efficiency and power, rather than by the well-being of humanity or the preservation of the biosphere.
While numerous significant individual contributions emerged in the latter half of the 20th century, Paul Durbin pinpointed two works published at the turn of the millennium as pivotal in establishing the philosophy of technology as a distinct academic subdiscipline with its own canonical texts: Technology and the Good Life (2000), edited by Eric Higgs, Andrew Light, and David Strong, and American Philosophy of Technology (2001) by Hans Achterhuis. The past decade has seen a proliferation of collected volumes and specialized journals dedicated to this field. Journals like Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology (published by the Society for Philosophy and Technology and distributed by the Philosophy Documentation Center) and Philosophy & Technology (from Springer) exclusively feature scholarly work in the philosophy of technology. Scholars in this domain engage with a vast array of topics, including geoengineering, the intricacies of internet data and privacy, our peculiar fascination with internet cats, the functional and epistemological dimensions of technology, computer ethics, the profound implications of biotechnology, the concept of transcendence in the context of space exploration, and the broader spectrum of technological ethics.
[Bernard Stiegler], in his groundbreaking work Technics and Time and subsequent writings, argued that the question of technology has been systematically suppressed, in the Freudian sense, throughout the history of philosophy. Stiegler contended, however, that the very question of technology constitutes the fundamental inquiry of philosophy itself. He demonstrated, for instance, in Plato's Meno, that technology is precisely what makes anamnesis, the retrieval of truth, possible. Stiegler's deconstruction of philosophical history through the lens of technology as a "supplement" offers a distinct pathway for understanding technology's place in philosophical discourse, diverging from established approaches within the field. In a similar vein, philosophers such as Alexander Galloway, Eugene Thacker, and [McKenzie Wark], in their collaborative work Excommunication, propose that the advancements and pervasive nature of digital technologies are precipitating a transformation of the philosophy of technology into a new "first philosophy." Drawing parallels with Plato's analysis of writing and speech in The Phaedrus, Galloway and his co-authors suggest that technology should not be viewed as secondary to ontology, but rather as antecedent to the very possibility of philosophy. They provocatively ask: "Does everything that exists, exist to be presented and represented, to be mediated and remediated, to be communicated and translated? There are mediative situations in which heresy, exile, or banishment carry the day, not repetition, communion, or integration. There are certain kinds of messages that state 'there will be no more messages'. Hence for every communication there is a correlative excommunication."
Furthermore, a focused examination of the philosophy of engineering has emerged as a significant sub-field within the philosophy of technology. Ibo van de Poel and David E. Goldberg's edited volume, Philosophy and Engineering: An Emerging Agenda (2010), features a collection of research articles delving into critical aspects of design, epistemology, ontology, and ethics in engineering.
Technology and Neutrality
Technological determinism posits the idea that "features of technology [determine] its use and the role of a progressive society was to adapt to [and benefit from] technological change." The opposing viewpoint, social determinism, places the onus on society for the "development and deployment" of technologies. Lelia Green, in her analysis of tragic events like the Port Arthur Massacre and the Dunblane Massacre, selectively employed both technological and social determinism to illustrate their respective arguments. Green's perspective suggests that a technology can only be considered truly neutral when divorced from its surrounding sociocultural context and the issues it engenders. In isolation, it becomes apparent that the possession of technologies is intrinsically linked to social groups and the dynamics of power. A more nuanced, compatibilist stance is the interactional approach to technology proposed by [Batya Friedman], which asserts that social forces and technology mutually construct and co-evolve with one another.