ABSTRACT
Technology has been an important moment in natural history since the transition of the various species to the process of civilization. Felix Ferre's scheme relies on fundamental intuitions found in the best-known discussions of technology in the recent history of ideas, e.g. in Karl Marx and Jean-Paul Sartre. In humans too technological operations must be linked to and remain within the framework of possible, biologically determined, stimulus-response connections, the motor requirements for movement of limbs and for coordination of perception and movement. Don Ihde is perhaps the most prominent proponent of this lifeworld theoretical view of technology. A "philosophy of technology" has also developed in the USA. The disciples of Technologiephilosophie can thus be described, to use the expression of the American historian of ideas, Jeffrey Herf, as "reactionary moderns", an ideal type he uses perhaps somewhat indiscriminately. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
