Technological Transformation: Contextual and Conceptual Implications / Edition 1

by E.F. Byrne, Joseph C. Pitt

Overview

The philosophical study of technology has acquired only recently a voice in academic conversation. This situation is due, in part, to the fact that technology obviously impacts on "the real world," whereas the favored stereotype of philosophy allegedly does not. Furthermore, in some circles it was assumed that philosophy ought not impinge on the world. This bias continues today in the form of a general dismissal of the growing area now referred to as "applied philosophy". By contrast, the academic scrutiny of science has for the most part been accepted as legitimate for some 30 years, primarily because it has been conducted in a somewhat ethereal manner. This is, in part, because it was believed that, science being pure, one could think (even philosophically) about science without jeopardizing one's intellectual purity. Since World War II, however, practitioners of the metascientific arts have come to ac­ knowledge that science also shows signs of having touched down on numerous occasions in what can only be identified as the real world. No longer able to keep this banal truth a secret, purists have sought to defuse its import by stressing the difference between pure and applied science; and, lest science be tainted by contact with the world through its applications, they have devoted additional energy to separating applied science somehow from technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789027728272
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	02/28/1989
Series:	Philosophy and Technology , #5
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1989
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

I. Intra-Cultural Transformation.- “The Technological Self.”.- “Cryptanalysis: Uncovering Objective Knowledge of Hidden Realities.”.- “Research and Development from the Viewpoint of Social Philosophy.”.- “Impartiality and Interpretive Intervention in Technical Controversy.”.- “The Problem of Valuation in Risk-Cost-Benefit Assessment of Public Policies.”.- “Fusion and Fission, Governors and Elevators.”.- “The Good Old Days: Age-Specific Perceptions of Progress.”.- “Technology and the Crisis of Liberalism: Reflections on Michael J. Sandel’s Work.”.- “A Theory of Normative Technology.”.- “Globalization and Community: In Search of Transnational Justice.”.- II. Cross-Cultural Transformation.- “What Technologies Transfer: The Contingent Nature of Cultural Responses.”.- “Transferred and Transformed Technology: The C.R.S. Thresher/Winnower.”.- “A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Technology Transfer to the Third World.”.- “Appropriate Technology in Technology Transfer: A View from the People’s Republic of China.”.- “Diffusion of Technology vis-à-vis Transformation : — Increasing Contradictions Between Technocratic Market Values and Social Democratic Values.”.- “Cultural Alienation through Technology Transfer.”.- “Risk and Technology Transfer: Equal Protection across National Borders.”.- “Technology Transfer to Poor Nations”.- “Development and the Environment.”.- Biographical Notes.- Topical Index.