Course Descriptions - Philosophies of Technology: From Techne to Technology HSTC 4200   Philosophies of Technology: From Techne to Technology
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This half-year course will explore the history, structure and associated problems of our coming to be technological, beginning with an elaboration of the concept of “techne” in the ancients and its modification in the technical arts and instrumental reasoning of the Enlightenment and of 19th-century industrial ideology. Post-Enlightenment critiques polarized around the place of the machine and alienation in Karl Marx and the “question concerning technology” in Martin Heidegger will then be examined, leading up to an examination of the present state of technological discourse. In each case, we shall mark the importance of contextualising the debate by exploring the actual historical evolution of technology. Lectures will be devoted to presenting a social and historical background to the development of modern technologies whilst seminars will focus on the reading of primary texts in the field.
FORMAT: Seminar
CROSS-LISTING: CTMP 4200.03