Surprising no one, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s new entry for the “Philosophy of Technology” severely under-reports contributions from the continental tradition. Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, and Latour are confined to parentheses, and folks like Deleuze, Benjamin(!), and Serres go completely unmentioned. This is no doubt to be expected — the introduction to the entry (below) even seems sheepish about it — but it just goes to show how persistently divisive the topic of ‘technology’ can be — for philosophy, of course, but also for culture at large.
“If philosophy is the attempt “to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term”, as Sellars (1962) put it, philosophy should not ignore technology. It is largely by technology that contemporary society hangs together. It is hugely important not only as an economic force but also as a cultural force. During the last two centuries, much philosophy of technology has been concerned with the impact of technology on society. Mitcham (1994) calls this type of philosophy of technology ‘humanities philosophy of technology’ because it is continuous with social science and the humanities. In addition to this, there is also a branch of the philosophy of technology that is concerned with technology in itself. This entry focuses on the latter branch of the philosophy of technology, which seeks continuity with the philosophy of science rather than social science and the humanities. The approach is analytic; other approaches are possible, but will not be discussed.”
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