On his book Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason
Cover Interview of December 17, 2017
In a nutshell
Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason is a
philosophical reflection on the technified world in which we live. Ours is a
world of technical systems designed in accordance with technical disciplines
and operated by personnel trained in those disciplines. This is a unique form
of social organization that largely determines our way of life. Technosystem
builds a theory of both the threats of technocratic modernity and the potential
for democratic change.
Technosystem draws on the tradition of social
criticism represented by Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School. These
radical thinkers recognized the dystopian implications of the generalization of
instrumental rationality but they did not advance a convincing alternative to
the new forms of domination imposed by rational systems. That is the
contribution of the empirically informed approaches of Science, Technology, and
Society Studies (STS). Technosystem uses these approaches to reconcile
the new power of rationality with the agency of a public increasingly mobilized
to intervene in technical life. In STS this is called “co-production.” The application
of this concept in Technosystem recognizes emerging forms of resistance,
such as protests and hacking, as essential expressions of public life in the “rational
society.”
Combining the most salient insights from critical theory
with the empirical findings of STS, Technosystem advances the
philosophical debate over the nature and practice of reason in
modern society. The book offers lucid explanations of the theories of
leading figures in both traditions. Neither tradition is sufficient by itself
but together they offer deep insight into contemporary experience in
technologically advanced societies.
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
In a nutshell
Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason is a philosophical reflection on the technified world in which we live. Ours is a world of technical systems designed in accordance with technical disciplines and operated by personnel trained in those disciplines. This is a unique form of social organization that largely determines our way of life. Technosystem builds a theory of both the threats of technocratic modernity and the potential for democratic change.
Technosystem draws on the tradition of social criticism represented by Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School. These radical thinkers recognized the dystopian implications of the generalization of instrumental rationality but they did not advance a convincing alternative to the new forms of domination imposed by rational systems. That is the contribution of the empirically informed approaches of Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS). Technosystem uses these approaches to reconcile the new power of rationality with the agency of a public increasingly mobilized to intervene in technical life. In STS this is called “co-production.” The application of this concept in Technosystem recognizes emerging forms of resistance, such as protests and hacking, as essential expressions of public life in the “rational society.”
Combining the most salient insights from critical theory with the empirical findings of STS, Technosystem advances the philosophical debate over the nature and practice of reason in modern society. The book offers lucid explanations of the theories of leading figures in both traditions. Neither tradition is sufficient by itself but together they offer deep insight into contemporary experience in technologically advanced societies.