Synopses & Reviews
Technology and Values is a comprehensive anthology featuring essays and book excerpts written by pre-eminent figures in the field. With writings spanning the early twentieth century up to present day, this is a collection of in-depth readings on key technological issues – everything from biomedical and environmental concerns to the everyday use of computers and other forms of technology.
A one-of-a-kind resource tool, it is specifically designed to help readers make the important connections between abstract themes and concrete applications for both the individual and society. Accessible to the undergraduate, yet thorough enough for graduates and academics, this is an ideal text for courses in technology and society, philosophy of technology, and numerous other technology-related classes.
Review
"This carefully selected and well organized collection of readings demonstrate the philosophical importance of technology and should be required reading to anyone wanting to find out how ubiquitous is technology in our lives. I cannot think of a better collection of texts if your task as a teacher is to engage students in questions about technology and values in their everyday lives."
–Gregory Fernando Pappas, Texas A&M University
Review
“Overall, Technology and Values represents an excellent collection of readings, ranging from classical yet ever timely readings on the nature of technology itself, to cutting edge articles on recent technological developments in the applied sphere. Due to its unique broad and comprehensive coverage of the subject matter, coupled with its comprehensive bibliography, this book is an excellent tool for both graduate and undergraduate courses.” (
Agric Hum Values, 2011)
"For its size and scope this collection docs a remarkable job of addressing a critical need for greater scholarly and public attention to questions of technology and values in contemporary culture. It is a rich and versatile resource for anyone interested in such questions, and this reviewer hopes that future editions will only improve on its virtues." (Technology and Culture, April 2010)
Synopsis
This anthology features essays and book excerpts on technology and values written by preeminent figures in the field from the early 20th century to the present. It offers an in-depth range of readings on important applied issues in technology as well.
- Useful in addressing questions on philosophy, sociology, and theory of technology
- Includes wide-ranging coverage on metaphysics, ethics, and politics, as well as issues relating to gender, biotechnology, everyday artifacts, and architecture
- A good supplemental text for courses on moral or political problems in which contemporary technology is a unit of focus
- An accessible and thought-provoking book for beginning and advanced undergraduates; yet also a helpful resource for graduate students and academics
About the Author
Craig Hanks is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University-San Marcos, where he is past-chair of the Institutional Review Board. He was previously at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and was Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He specializes in philosophy of technology and applied philosophy, and has taught courses on engineering ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and philosophy of technology. He is author of Refiguring Critical Theory (2002) and editor of Inner Space/Outer Space: The Humanities, Technology and the Postmodern World (1993); his monograph, Technological Musings: Reflections on Technology and Values, is forthcoming.
Table of Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Source Acknowledgments
General Introduction
Section One: Theoretical Reflections on Technology
Part I: Introductory Considerations of Technology
1. Toward a Philosophy of Technology: Hans Jonas
2. Four Philosophies of Technology: Alan R. Drengson
3. The Relation of Science and Technology to Human Values: William W.Lowrance
4. A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans: Bruno Latour
5. Technology and Ethics: Kristen Shrader-Frechette
Part II: Considering the Autonomy of Technology
6. The Autonomy of Technology: Jacques Ellul
7. Artifice and Order: Langdon Winner
8. The Autonomy of Technology: Joseph Pitt
Part III: Existential and Phenomenological Considerations
9. The Question Concerning Technology: Martin Heidegger
10. Man the Technician: José Ortega y Gasset
11. Focal Things and Practices: Albert Borgmann
12. A Phenomenology of Technics: Don Ihde
Part IV: Critical Theory
13. The New Forms of Control: Herbert Marcuse
14. Technical Progress and the Social Life-World: Jürgen Habermas
15. The Critical Theory of Technology: Andrew Feenberg
Part V: Pragmatic Considerations
16. Science and Society: John Dewey
17. Technology and Community Life: Larry Hickman
Part VI: Feminist Considerations
18. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentith Century: Donna Haraway
19. Technological Ethics in a Different Voice: Diane P. Michelfelder
Section Two: Applied Reflections on Technology and Value
Part VII: Technology and Value in Everyday Life
Introduction
20. The Aesthetic Drama of the Ordinary: John McDermott
21: Domestic Technology: Labour-saving or Enslaving?: Judy Wajcman
22. Some Meanings of Automobiles: Douglas Browning
Part VIII: Values and BioTechnologies
Introduction
23. How Splendid Technologies Can Go Wrong: Daniel Callahan
24. Genetics and Reproductive Risk: Can Having Children be Immoral?: Laura M. Purdy
25. Preventing a Brave New World: Leon Kass
26: Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research: Embryos and Beyond: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín and Marin Gillis
27. Food for Thought: Nina V. Federoff and Nancy Marie Brown
28. Value Judgments and Risk Comparisons. The Case of Genetically Engineered Crops: Paul Thompson
Part IX: Urban Values
Introduction
29. The Highway and the City: Lewis Mumford
30. Designing Cities and Buildings as if They Were Ethical Choices: Jessica Woolliams
31. The Local History of Space: Steven Moore
32. Community: Joseph Grange
33. Urban Ecological Citizenship: Andrew Light
Part X: Environmental Values
Introduction
34. Why Mow?: Michael Pollan
35. Technology: Lori Gruen
36. Environment, Technology, and Ethics: Rajni Kothari
37. The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic: J. Baird Callicott
38. Deep Ecology: Bill Devall and George Sessions
39. Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique: Ramachandra Guha
40. Just Garbage: Peter S. Wenz
Part XI: Immediate Challenges: Information Technologies, Technological Systems and the Future of Human Values
Introduction
41. Philosophy of Information Technology: Carl Mitcham
42. Into the Electronic Millennium: Sven Birkerts
43. Why I Am not Going to Buy a Computer: Wendell Berry
44. In the Age of the Smart Machine: Shoshana Zuboff
45. The Social Life of Information: John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid
46. The Quest For Universal Usability: Ben Shneiderman
Bibliography