ABSTRACT
Summary
The technological sciences, just like the natural sciences, are classified under the exact disciplines. These sciences are supposed to be ‘harder’ or ‘more objective’ than the social sciences and the humanities. However, in this chapter we demonstrate that science and technology are likewise social realities. Technology is a product of human cooperation, therefore there are always social factors involved as well. The awareness of this social aspect of science and technology has increased markedly as a result of recent studies. In this chapter this development is sketched by referring to the empirical turn in the philosophy of technology. First of all we deal with two classical philosophers of technology: Heidegger and Ellul. Then we cross the bridge to the actual, more empirically oriented philosophy of technology. Via Winner we get to Latour and the SCOT approach.
We begin with a situation in everyday life. A scientist goes to her study, switches on the light, adjusts the heating, presses the ‘on’ button of her computer, makes herself a mug of coffee with an apparatus, puts a CD of Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz into the CD player, opens a file and starts rattling on her keyboard. This scene which seems not worth reporting, demonstrates how great a role technology has in our lives. Even in a relatively simply furnished study the number of technological apparatuses can hardly be enumerated on the fingers of one hand, let alone in the whole house.
Let us look at the scene above in somewhat more old-fashioned terms: a scientist goes to his study, draws open the curtains so that the daylight falls on his desk, takes up a pen and paper, and starts writing. On the fire in the hearth a small kettle of water is simmering and now and again he pours some water into the coffee filter. In this description of the situation there also are technological elements but 215they are much less obvious. When we compare these two examples it seems that technological developments have at most made life somewhat easier and more pleasant. One can make coffee in the old-fashioned way, but one can also use an apparatus. Or one can write a book with a pen and paper, but one can also do this with a computer. Or one can work by daylight, but one can also switch on the electric light.
But is technology really as innocent as depicted above? Does technology only make life a little more comfortable and pleasant? Can one choose to make use of it or not? Or does technology play a much greater part in our lives? What would happen in our country if there was a power failure for a few days? Or if electronic transactions in the financial world could not be done for weeks on end? If modern telecommunications no longer functioned? This type of question worries people. Yet since the beginning of the nineteenth century these questions have been asked with increasing urgency. This disquiet concerns the technological development which in the modern world has a complete dynamics of its own. People acquire ever more scientific insight into the natural reality. These insights are translated into technological applications at an increasing rate. Human beings are constantly looking for new solutions, new technologies or new medicines to master problems as yet unsolved or illnesses which are still untreatable. Technology more and more develops into an autonomous system which is not easy to manage. Although technology has not been a constant theme in philosophy for a long while, one can nowadays speak of a tradition of philosophy of technology. It is striking that this tradition from the start has been critical towards modern technology and has been guided by a degree of mistrust towards its development.
