The sacred and the limits of the technological fix

Zygon 19 (3):259-275 (1984)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Three points are discussed: first, that limits of technological fixes are revealed by current economic, social, and environmental problems; second, that these problems cannot be solved by a technological fix but require alternative forms of activity and being; third, that realizing these limits makes possible the re‐emergence of the sacred. Two attitudes toward technology, nature, and the sacred are described: Technocrats desacralize nature and strive to shape it technologically for human ends alone; pernetarians resacralize nature and develop a perennial philosophy (synthesized from elements of different spiritual disciplines) allied with an enlarged, artful science, so as to design activities compatible with nature.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,423

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Technological Fix Criticisms and the Agricultural Biotechnology Debate.Dane Scott - 2011 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 24 (3):207-226.
The Myth of the Technological Fix.Max Oelschlaeger - 1979 - Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 10 (1):43-53.
The Limits of Liberty.Michael Clark - 2004 - In Ben Rogers (ed.), Is Nothing Sacred? Routledge.
Knowledge and the sacred.Seyyed Hossein Nasr - 1981 - New York: Crossroad.
The Sacred in the Visual Arts.Isabelle Sabau - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 1:239-246.
Collective rights and the value of groups.Vinit Haksar - 1998 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 41 (1):21 – 43.
Should technological imperatives be obeyed?Ilkka Niiniluoto - 1990 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 4 (2):181-189.
3. On the Fate of Nations.Siobhan Nash-Marshall - 2001 - Logos. Anales Del Seminario de Metafísica [Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España] 4 (2).

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-09-02

Downloads
75 (#216,695)

6 months
11 (#225,837)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

The Technological Fix Criticisms and the Agricultural Biotechnology Debate.Dane Scott - 2011 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 24 (3):207-226.
The role of science in public policy: Higher reason, or reason for hire? [REVIEW]Stephen F. Haller & James Gerrie - 2007 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 20 (2):139-165.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The technological society.Jacques Ellul (ed.) - 1964 - New York,: Knopf.
The shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement. A summary.Arne Naess - 1973 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 16 (1-4):95 – 100.
The perennial philosophy.Aldous Huxley - 1945 - New York: Perennial Classics.
The Perennial Philosophy.Aldous Huxley - 1950 - Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 4 (4):618-622.
Science, reason, knowledge, and wisdom: A critique of specialism.Nicholas Maxwell - 1980 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 23 (1):19 – 81.

View all 25 references / Add more references