Syllabus:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/~rbb/risd/TCL2011.syllabus.pdf
Final Update: May 20, 2011
Books | Weekly Descriptions | Additional Bibliography
| Final Exam
Briefly: Our Age is one in which technology,
and digital technology in particular, is described routinely as having the
power not only to accommodate our desires, enhance our experiences, and expand
our abilities, but to transform the daily life of human societies and redirect
the course of history. In such an Age, what does it mean to understand
technology as a social and historical phenomenon, and how can we best analyze
its character, claims and consequences? In this course, we'll discuss
philosophical and historical interpretations of modern technology (1840-2010),
reading works by philosophers, historians, scientists, and “technologists”,
among others. The basic aim of the course is for everyone to develop/revise his
or her own philosophy of technology in light of these readings, our
discussions, and your writing about technology.
Requirements: The foundation of our work in this
course will be our discussions of the assigned readings; and several writing assignments
designed to capture your reflections on technology, aid your analysis of
technology, and give you a sense of writing philosophy. Students are expected
to read and question critically, attend and contribute regularly to class
discussions, and to do their best to engage with the various topics we’ll cover
during the semester. The writing assignments are:
1. Several one-page “weeklies”, in which
you identify a significant or challenging sentence in one of the week’s
assigned readings, and explain its meaning.
2. A dialogue or radio play featuring at
least two different perspectives you find in the short essays in the Brockman
book. The goal of the dialogue/play should be for the characters to resolve
something between/among them. This may happen through argumentation/rhetoric,
the presentation of evidence, circumstance, and/or the willingness to
compromise on some but not all the sources of disagreement.
3. An analytical essay that compares and
contrasts two or more of the essays from the Kaplan collection and presents
your own position as well.
4. A journal (in any format you like)
that traces your adventures adopting, learning, achieving equilibrium with, or
giving up a contemporary digital technology of importance (to you). You may
keep this journal online or send entries/updates when you turn in your
“weeklies”.
In addition to these writing
assignments there will be a final exam.
Required Texts (available in paperback editions at
Symposium Books and Amazon, and on reserve in the Library):
We may rely on the World Wide
Web for some additional required texts, and for recent publications. All links
to the electronic required readings will be part of the electronic version of
the syllabus, and the required texts will be on reserve at the RISD Library.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations, trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton
and Philip Beitchman (Semiotexte,
1983).
Beniger, James R. The Control Revolution: Technological
and Economic Origins of the Information Society (Harvard
University Press, 1986).
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations, edited by
Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (Schocken,
1968/1936) pp. 217-252.
Berry, Wendell. "Why I
Am Not Going To Buy A Computer," from What
Are People For? (North Point Press, 1990).
Borgmann, Albert. Holding on to Reality: The Nature of
Information at the Turn of the Millennium (University of Chicago
Press, 1999).
Brin, David. The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to
Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Addison-Wesley, 1998).
Brook, James, and Boal, Iain. Resisting
the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information (City
Lights, 1995).
Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy (Oxford University
Press, 2003).
Cockburn, Cynthia, and Ormrod, Susan. Gender
and Technology in the Making (Sage, 1993).
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. A Social History of American
Technology (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Spinosa, Charles. "
Ellul, Jacques. The Technological Society (Alfred A. Knopf, 1964).
Ess, Charles. Philosophical Perspectives on
Computer-Mediated Communication (SUNY Press, 1996).
Feenberg, Andrew. Questioning Technology (Routledge, 1999).
Feenberg, Andrew, and Hannay, Alaistair (eds). Technology and the Politics of Knowledge (Indiana University Press,
1995).
Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman
Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (FSG, 2002).
Gray, Chris Hables.
Cyborg Citizen: Politics
in the Posthuman Age (Routledge, 2002).
Hanks, Craig (ed). Technology and Values: Essential
Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Post-Human
(University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning
Technology and Other Essays, trans.William Lovitt (Harper
& Row, 1977).
Hickman, Larry A. Philosophical Tools for Technological
Culture: Putting Pragmatism to Work (
Ignatieff, Michael. Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (Metropolitan Books, 2000).
Jaspers, Karl. The Origin and Goal of History (Yale
University Press, 1953).
Jonas, Hans. “Toward a
Philosophy of Technology,” in the Hastings Center Report 9, no. 1 (1979).
Reprinted in Hanks 2010, and Kaplan 2004.
Kaplan, David M. (ed).
Kargon, Robert H. and Molella,
Arthur P. "Culture, Technology and Constructed Memory in Disney's New
Town: Techno-nostalgia in Historical Perspective," in Cultures of Control,
edited by Miram R. Levin (Harwood Academic
Publishers, 2000), pp. 135-150.
Kranzberg, Melvin. "The Information Age:
Evolution or Revolution?", in Bruce R. Guile
(ed.), Information
Technologies and Social Transformation (National Academy Press,
1985).
Lightman, Alan et al (eds). Living with
the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Island
Press, 2003).
Lyon, David. The
Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society (Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1994).
Marx, Karl. "The Meaning
of Human Requirements," in Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, edited by Dirk J. Struik, trans. by Martin Milligan (International
Publishers, 1964), pp. 147-164. English translations also available at the
Marxists Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/).
Mitcham, Carl and Robert Mackey. Philosophy and Technology:
Moser, Mary Anne, with
Douglas McLeod. Immersed
in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments (MIT, 1995).
Mumford, Lewis. Art and Technics
(Columbia University Press, 2000/1952).
Neumann, Peter G.
(moderator). The Risks
Digest: Forum On Risks To The Public In Computers And
Related Systems (ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks,
2003).
Olsen, Jan Kyrre Berg et al. New
Waves in the Philosophy of Technology (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009).
Pacey, Arnold. Meaning in Technology
(MIT, 1999).
Powers, Richard. Galatea 2.2 (FSG, 1995).
Scharff, Robert C. and Dusek,
Val (eds). Philosophy of Technology: The Technological
Condition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003).
Spiller, Neil (ed). Cyber_Reader: Critical writings for the digital era (Phaidon
Press, 2002).
Techné: Journal of the Society for
Philosophy and Technology.
Electronic version available at the Digital Library Archives of Virginia Tech: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT.
Tenner, Edward. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and
the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Knopf, 1996).
Ullman, Ellen. Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents (City
Lights, 1997).
Vaughan, Diane. The Challenger Launch Decision
(University of Chicago Press, 1997).
Vermaas, Pieter E. and Kroes, Peter et al (eds). Philosophy and Design: From Engineering to Architecture (Springer,
2009).
Webster, Frank (ed). The Information Society Reader (Routledge,
2004).
Weizenbaum, Joseph. Computer Power and Human Reason
(W.H. Freeman, 1976).
Wilks, Yorick (ed). Close Engagements with Artificial Companions (John Benjamins, 2010).
Winner, Langdon. The Whale and the Reactor
(University of Chicago Press, 1986).
Week #1 (February 22 &
25): Introduction to the course
Why a course on technology and
contemporary life -- as opposed to one about politics,
art, or science and contemporary
life – and what distinguishes the philosophy of technology from other branches
of philosophy? We'll review the syllabus and course requirements, find out what
(besides the 101 requirement) prompted people to sign up for this course, and
begin our readings from the Brockman and Kaplan collections.
Required
Reading: For Friday,
read Hans Jonas’ “Toward a Philosophy of Technology” (1979) (available through
JSTOR on the RISD Fleet Library website), and find a short piece in Brockman
that resonates with you.
Recommended Reading: The Risks
Digest
Week #2
(March 1 & 4): An introduction to philosophies of technology, old and new.
Krantzberg (1985) wrote that "[t]echnology is neither good nor bad, but neither is it
neutral." We'll begin with a discussion of different views about how much
power we should attribute to technology in evaluating changes in society and
social life.
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Use either Jonas 1979 or Borgmann 1984 for your first one-page “weekly” assignment.
It is due on Friday (the 4th) by the end of the day.
Week #3 (March 8 &
11): 19th Century (Industrial) Technology and the power of the
machine.
We’ll try to remove ourselves
from the digital age, and consider what technology meant for philosophers, artists,
and social critics in the late 19th and early 20th
century.
Required
Recommended
Viewing: Charlie
Chaplin’s Modern Times, and Wachowski’s The
Matrix.
Assignment: Write a one-page weekly using Marx
1844 (3rd manuscript), or Marcuse 1964, due by the end of the day on
Friday the 11th.
Week #4 (March 15 &
18): Technology and Humanity I
Week #5 (March 22 &
25): Technology and Humanity II
We'll begin by reading &
discussing Heidegger's "Question Concerning Technology," trying to
figure out his picture of technology’s relationship to human being(s).
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Identify an issue or set of issues
from the Brockman book that will form the basis of your dialogue or radio
play assignment.
Week #6 (March 29 &
April 1): Spring Vacation
Week #7 (April 5 & 8):
Technology and Politics I
The rise of digital
technologies has brought with it several reformulations of both the
significance of technology and the significance (or lack of significance) of
humanity. We’ll return from the Break talking about “post-modernism”, “post-humanism”,
“trans-humanism” and the difference these perspectives (can/should/might) make
to one’s philosophy of technology.
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Write a one-page weekly on Heidegger
1977, Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986, or Lyotard 1979. It
is due by the end of the day on Friday the 8th.
Week #8 (April 12 & 15):
Technology and Politics II
Although
recent events in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere have given rise to the use of
technology (as a tool) in political revolutions, the issue of “politics” in the
philosophy of technology has had to do with examining what it means to say that
a particular technology “has a politics”.
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Write a one-page weekly on either
Winner 1986 or Foucault 1975. It is due by the end of the day on Friday the 15th.
Week #9 (April 19 &
22): Technology and Politics III
This
week we turn to the questions about technology and democracy.
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Write a one-page weekly on either Scholve 2000 or Tribe 1991. It is due by the end of the day
on Friday the 22nd.
Week #10 (April 26 &
29): Technology and Design I
Although the
general connection between the philosophy of technology and design (whether of
objects, systems or experiences) should be clear enough by now, we will spend
the next couple of weeks discussing some explicit arguments concerning how technologies
can/do embody/exemplify certain social and political values/commitments by design.
Required
Recommended
Assignment: Write a one-page weekly on either
Bush 1983 or Kroes 2002. It is due by the end of the day on Friday the 29th,
as is your Dialogue/Radio Play.
Week #11 (May 3 & 6):
Technology and Design II
We’ll
continue the discussion of whether/how technologies can be designed to promote
certain values, and also question whether/how different philosophies of
technology make a difference in assessing the potential/possibilities of
contemporary technologies.
Required
Assignment: An outline or draft
of your essay comparing at least two essays from Kaplan is due by Friday the 6th.
Week #12 (May 10 &
13): Technology and Ethics I
Building on
our discussions last month of the seemingly peculiar question, “Does a
technology have a politics?” we turn this week to the relationship between
modern technology and ethics. We’ll be particularly concerned with issues of
justification, responsibility, and Jonas’ worry that contemporary technology
presents us with situations for which traditional ethics hasn’t prepared us.
Required
Assignment: Write your last
one-page weekly (!!) on either Feenberg 1992, Latour 1999, Jonas 1974, or
McGinn 1994. Due by the end of the day on Friday the 13th (!!).
Week #13 (May 17 &
20): Technology and Ethics II
In this
final week we’ll continue our discussion of technology and ethics, but we’ll
use most of Friday’s class to review the semester’s readings and discussions in
preparation for the final exam.
Required
Recommended Assignment: Turn in
the final version of your analytical essay by Friday the 20th.
Week #14: Final Exam
(Monday, May 23rd @ 9 a.m.): The exam will begin with some
quotation identifications (for which you may use your books and notes, but not
your computers) and then you’ll be required to write an essay about your choice
of (one of 3-4 given) topics. For the essay portion of the exam, you may use
your computer and your books, notes, chocolate, etc.
© 2011 Roger B. Blumberg