PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT
Philosophy of technology, which only emerged in the nineteenth century as a field of philosophy,
investigates interconnections among the human needs that invoke a technology for their
satisfaction, the determinants of these needs, and how people come to know them.
The term technology is a combination of the Greek technic, meaning art, and logos, meaning
word or discourse. In English it first (1615) denoted a discourse on an art or arts (Shorter Oxford
English Dictionary, 1933), later embracing the scientific study of the practical and industrial arts
and their methods. In philosophical literature, the terms technology, technic (or technics), and
technique are differentiated. Hood gives the traditional definition of technology originating with
Aristotle as a human arrangement of technicstools, machines, instruments, materials,
sciences, and personnelto make possible and serve the attainment of human ends (Hood,
1983, p. 347). Technique is usually used to convey the method of using technics, but because
usage varies among different authors and languages, readers may find the terms used
interchangeably. Martin Heidegger's concept is broader: The manufacture and utilization of
equipment, tools, and machines, the manufactured and used things themselves, and the needs and
ends that they serve, all belong to what technology is. He adds that according to the current
conception, technology is a means and a human activity
Heidegger here incorporates two contemporary connotations of technology, the most common
being the means and methods used to produce and deliver goods and services for industrial,
commercial, and military use. Another, or anthropological, sense is: the body of knowledge
available to a civilization that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and
skills, and extracting or collecting materials (American Heritage Dictionary, 3d edition, 1993).
This second sense excludes aspects of modern technology, which depends more on the
integration of science with technological applications and less on the manual arts and skills.
Hidden in the differences among these definitions is a philosophical question: does technology
deal with a body of knowledge, only its application, or both?
SUBMITTED BY
T. SAI SUMANTH
2014132
SECTION B