Abstract

Most philosophy of technology tends to separate modern technology from what came before it, condemning the most contemporary developments as total and dehumanizing, stating preference for some earlier ideal. This dissertation instead presents a theory of technology which considers all forms of tools to be extensions of humanity into the continually redefined context of nature. ;The first chapter demonstrates how technology is much more central to philosophy than previously acknowledged, beginning with the bow and lyre of Heraclitus as an example of how we analogize from simple tools to contemplate the workings of the universe, continuing through Aristotle and Plato to suggest ways in which praxis has inspired speculation. ;The second chapter presents categories to classify all kinds of technology, showing how each different type may be understood as an extension of humanity in a different direction. ;The third chapter surveys the technological theories of Aristotle, Spinoza, Bacon, Marx, Heidegger, Mumford, and McLuhan, interpreting each to envision in its own way a progression of humanity towards a nature which is meant to be the goal of our development. ;The fourth chapter asserts a contrasting view: that technologies as they develop into metaphors for explanation change the very meaning of the nature they intend to approach. The potter's wheel, the clock, the steam engine, and finally the digital computer are examined in this light. ;The fifth chapter discusses how technology can change nature in a much more direct manner than analogy. With tools of war and environmental decimation, the limits of nature may be transgressed long before we are able to comprehend them. ;Instead, chapter six explains how technology should be directed to shape our rightful human place in the world. The normative guideline of 'appropriate' technology is here defined in terms of how well we as the whole of humanity can extend ourselves into our environment without destroying the ability to see beyond our own interest. The conclusion is that technique should not replace awe, so that the universe remains more than what we make of it, whatever images we supply to explain it