Alle Publikationen
2019
-
(2019): Grund, Figur und Gleichgewichtsvorstellungen bei Gilbert Simondon. In: Gestalt Theory 41 (3), S. 293-317. DOI: 10.2478/gth-2019-0027
2018
-
(2018): On the Soul of Technical Objects: Commentary on Simondon’s ‘Technics and Eschatology’ (1972). In: Theory, Culture & Society 35 (6), S. 97-111. DOI: 10.1177/0263276418757318
-
(2018): The knowledge level in cognitive architectures. Current limitations and possible developments. In: COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH 48, S. 39-55. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.05.001
Abstract: In this paper we identify and characterize an analysis of two problematic aspects affecting the representational level of cognitive architectures (CAs), namely: the limited size and the homogeneous typology of the encoded and processed knowledge. We argue that such aspects may constitute not only a technological problem that, in our opinion, should be addressed in order to build artificial agents able to exhibit intelligent behaviors in general scenarios, but also an epistemological one, since they limit the plausibility of the comparison of the CAs' knowledge representation and processing mechanisms with those executed by humans in their everyday activities. In the final part of the paper further directions of research will be explored, trying to address current limitations and future challenges. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Computerwissenschaft, Disziplin, Favoriten, formale Sprache, Formalisierung, Intellektualtechnik, Kogn. Architektur, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, kognitive Architekturen, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), natürliche Sprache, Ontologie, Philosophie, Realtechnik, Sprachverarbeitung, Technik, Technikphilosophie, Überblick, Weltwissen 2017
-
Friedrich, Alexander; Gehring, Petra; Hubig, Christoph; Kaminski, Andreas; Nordmann, Alfred (Hg.) (2017): Technisches Nichtwissen. Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie. 1. Auflage. Baden-Baden: Nomos
-
Friedrich, Alexander; Gehring, Petra; Hubig, Christoph; Kaminski, Andreas; Nordmann, Alfred (Hg.) (2017): Technisches Nichtwissen. Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie 2017. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. 1. Auflage. Baden-Baden: Nomos (Edition Sigma)
Abstract: Das Nichtwissen ist in aller Munde. Von Nichtwissenskulturen in der zweiten oder reflexiven Moderne ist die Rede, von Agnotologie als neuem Forschungszweig, von wicked problems und ihren clumsy solutions. Wo Nichtwissen sich durch Komplexitätssteigerung unwiderruflich im zu Wissenden einnistet, fordert es als Grenze, Schranke und Kehrseite des Wissens die sogenannte Wissensgesellschaft heraus. Vor allem Risikopotenziale und Gefahren kommen hier in den Blick, von denen wir gerade genug wissen, um Wissensansprüche zu formulieren, die sich womöglich nie einlösen lassen. Das klassisch erkenntnistheoretische Problem: Was können wir wissen? steht heute in einem Spannungsverhältnis zu der wissenspolitischen Frage: Was müssen wir wissen? Was wir wissen müssen, ist einerseits so viel wie nötig, wenn es um Fragen von Sicherheit und Gesundheit geht andererseits aber so wenig wie möglich, wenn es in Alltag, Wirtschaft oder Wissenschaft darauf ankommt, Wissen an technische Systeme oder Expertenkulturen zu delegieren. Bezeichnet politisch handlungsorientiertes und wissenschaftliches Nichtwissen zunächst ein Defizit, ist technisches Nichtwissen gleichermaßen erstrebenswert und problematisch. Einige, die Technik für angewandtes Wissen halten, mögen darin eine contradictio in adjecto sehen, manche sich um eine dem technischen Nichtwissen geschuldeten Technikfeindlichkeit sorgen, andere daraus die nötige Demut gegen verstiegene Allmachtsfantasien beziehen, während ihre Gegenspieler von Maschinen träumen, die über den Horizont intellektueller Nachvollziehbarkeit immer weiter hinauseilen. Mit Beiträgen von: Suzana Alpsancar, Lars Bullmann, Marcus Burkhardt, Eoin Carney, Pelle Ehn, Stefan Frisch, Gerhard Gamm, Petra Gehring, Till Greite, Hans Hasse, Andreas Kaminski, Gregor Kanitz, Matthias Koch, Christian Köhler, Johannes Lenhard, Alexandre Métraux, Alfred Nordmann, Tanja Paulitz, Tom Poljanek, Sandra Pravica, Katrin Solhdju, Werner Sombart, Florian Sprenger, Sebastian Vehlken und Rüdiger Zill.
-
(2017): Undesirable Consequences and Social Contexts of Technology Use. A Micro-analysis of Embodied User Interaction. In: Interacting with Computers 29 (4), S. 481-493. DOI: 10.1093/iwc/iwx002Keywords: analytics, Computerwissenschaft, Disziplin, empirical studies in collaborative and social computing, fortgeschrittene interaktive Geräte, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, interference of social interaction, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), novel interaction devices, Philosophie, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, social interaction, Technik, Technik-Nutzer Interaktion, Techniknutzung, Technikphilosophie, technological innovation, Technological innovations, Technologie und Soziales, techno-social framework, undesirable consequences, Volltreffer
-
(2017): Social Transformation and Online Technology. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (1), S. 55-70. DOI: 10.5840/techne20174561
Abstract: The Internet age has seen the influential rise of social media. Consumer culture is tied to this modern phenomenon. This paper begins with an exposition of Herbert Marcuse’s grounding in phenomenology and his subsequent critique of Heidegger’s apolitical Dasein. In explicating Marcuse’s critical theory of technology, this paper will retrace Hegel’s influence on Marcuse in the idea of the dialectic. The dialectic is an integral aspect of social transformation. While modern technology may be value-neutral, it is argued herein that the lack of depth in social media provokes thought and invites critical dissent. Marcuse believes in the capacity of modern tools to effect social reform through adaptation. But emerging pathologies from online technology also have pressing challenges. For instance, social media makes manifest a dominant order that can be manipulative. It can be said that particular interests, notably from business and capitalists, shape the type of consumer culture that online technology promotes. In advancing Marcuse’s relevance in today’s Internet age, the paper will explore how social media as a platform can truly liberate the individual from the ills that consumerism peddles online.
-
(2017): Entangled in Digital Media. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (1), S. 106-113. DOI: 10.5840/techne20172111
Abstract: Review of Digital Media: Human-Technology Connection, by Stacey O’Neal Irwin In the first wave of digital studies, between the 1980s and the early 1990s, the term ‘virtual’ used to have at least three meanings. First, it used to indicate a realm apart, a software-based dimension detached from physically existing reality. Second, the virtual was seen as a place where people could experiment, without the risks and the physical, social, and ethical constraints of real life, new possibilities, actions, and choices. This second acceptation is closer to the etymology of the word. In fact, ‘virtual’ comes from the Latin virtus/virtualis, which translates the Greek term ‘dynamis,’ ‘ability,’ ‘potential,’ ‘potency,’ ‘power.’ In his comment on the first three chapters of the ninth book of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Martin Heidegger (1995) rendered ‘dynamis’ with ‘Kraft,’ ‘force,’ and ‘Vermögen', a term that might be translated as ‘ability,’ but also ‘faculty,’ ‘capacity,’ and ‘capability.’ As such, the virtual is not opposed to the real, but rather to the actual – ‘actus’ in Latin, translation of the Greek ‘energheia.’ And this is precisely the third meaning of ‘virtual’ as computer-mediated self- and social-empowerment. In other terms, ‘virtual’ and ‘virtuality’ refer to the effects, positive and negative, of online experimentations on real life.
-
(2017): On the mode of existence of technical objects. Washington: Univocal Publishing
-
(2017): Recovering a "Disfigured" Face. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (1), S. 1-23. DOI: 10.5840/techne2016121659
Abstract: Prosthetic devices that replace an absent body part are generally considered to be either cosmetic or functional. Functional prostheses aim to restore (some degree of) lost physical functioning. Cosmetic prostheses attempt to restore a “normal” appearance to bodies that lack (one or more) limbs by emulating the absent body part’s looks. In this article, we investigate how cosmetic prostheses establish a normal appearance by drawing on the stories of the users of a specific type of artificial limb: the facial prosthesis. Given that prostheses are first and foremost devices worn upon the body, such an analysis requires an understanding of the ways in which bodies and technologies interact. We thus interpret users’ stories by critically engaging with the work of disability researcher and Actor-Network theorist Myriam Winance, as well as with the postphenomenological scholarship of Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek. Using this framework, we explore users’ attempts to achieve a proper fit between their faces and their prostheses, the technological transparency such a fit enables, and the ways in which transparency mediates users’ everyday exchanges with others. We conclude that a normal appearance, when it is achieved by means of prosthetics, enables the device’s user to navigate a precarious social environment as they encounter and interact with others in public.
Keywords: Akzeptanz der äußeren Erscheinung in prekären sozialen Begegnungen in der Öffentlichkeit, Anblick, Human Enhancement Technologies, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), normales Erscheinungsbild, Philosophie, Prothesen, Realtechnik, Selbst, Technik, Technikphilosophie, Technologie, Technologische Konstruktion, Visuelle Wahrnehmung, Zeitschrift: techne -
(2017): Political inertia and social acceleration. In: Philosophy & Social Criticism 43 (7), S. 707-723. DOI: 10.1177/0191453716669195
Abstract: There is a complicated relation between social and political inertia - the failure of institutions to respond adequately to social, technological and environmental change - and social acceleration - the tendency of social change to go faster and faster. Social stasis and acceleration are not simply opposed but also causally related. This article contrasts two theories of political and social inertia. Francis Fukuyama argues that political inertia is a result of a cognitive and institutional rigidity which is ultimately grounded in human nature, and that therefore inertia is a feature inherent in political systems. Hartmut Rosa, by contrast, sees inertia as a specifically modern phenomenon, which is the result of the inability of political institutions to cope with the accelerating rate of change in other social systems. It will be argued that a broad approach combining historical, institutional and normative perspectives is needed to explain political inertia.
Keywords: Critical Theory of Technology, Disziplin, Fukuyama, Hartmut Rosa, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, inertia, Kulturphilosophie, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Philosophie, Reflexionen über MTR, social acceleration, social, technological and environmental change, soziale Akzeleration, Soziale Angemessenheit, sozialer Wandel, Technikphilosophie, Technologie und Politik, Technologie und Soziales, Trägheit politischer Systeme 2016
-
(2016): Beyond Technological Mediation. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (3), S. 177-197. DOI: 10.5840/techne201671949
Abstract: Several philosophers of technology have argued that technology mediates human actions. For example, in the branch of post-phenomenology, authors such as Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek have described the mediating aspects of technology in terms of morality of technology (more prominent in Verbeek) as well as in the sense that technology changes our perception of ourselves and the world (more prominent in Ihde). In this article, different existing types of mediation are presented, critiqued, and enriched. The four types are illustrated by referring to military high-tech environments with a focus on visual data and imaging technologies. These technologies can mediate actions (1) by inviting certain behavior, (2) through amplification and reduction, (3) through built-in norms, and (4) through interpretation. The four types of mediation mainly focus on the technology or technological artifact itself. What these approaches fail to grasp, however, is the specific user practices in which most technologies function. In this article, it is argued that to understand the mediating aspects of technology more fully, attention should be paid to the specific user context in which the technology functions. Therefore, an enriched understanding of the four types of mediation of technology is proposed by taking the lens of normative practices and analyzing the different types of mediation through this lens. The Kunduz airstrike incident, which took place in 2009 in Afghanistan, is a case in which a visual data sharing device called Rover played a prominent role. This case is used in this article to illustrate how technology mediates human actions in military practice.
Keywords: Bürger vs. Staat, Disziplin, Grundlagenreflexion, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Interaktionspartner, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Militär, Philosophie, Reflexionen über MTR, Sozialer Raum / Kultureller Kontext, Spezifischer Nutzer-Kontext beim Benutzer der Maschine, Technikphilosophie, (Theory of) technological mediation, Verbeek, Zeitschrift: techne -
(2016): On Friendship Between Online Equals. In: Philosophy & Technology 29 (1), S. 21-34. DOI: 10.1007/s13347-014-0183-6
Abstract: There is an ongoing debate about the value of virtual friendship. In contrast to previous authorships, this paper argues that virtual friendship can have independent value. It is argued that within an Aristotelian framework, some friendships that are perhaps impossible offline can exist online, i.e., some offline unequals can be online equals and thus form online friendships of independent value.
-
(2016): Missing Ihde. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 95-104. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672551
Abstract: This article investigates how lack of a phenomenology of technology has hurt understanding of the lifeworld. One way, as Ihde has shown, involves a failure to appreciate the instrumental mediation of experience and the extension of perception. But Ihde also fails to notice the background in which these mediations are taking place and which shapes the mediations themselves and our interpretation of them; not even the research of technoscientists takes place in a neutral atmosphere that does not affect how we work. This article also discusses hermeneutic distortion, or the gap in collective interpretive resources that occurs when the technoscientific infrastructure withdraws and becomes all but invisible, encouraging the tendency to treat scientific conclusions as mere opinions, and technoscientific devices as accessory rather than integral to the modern world.
-
(2016): Assessing the Moral Coherence and Moral Robustness of Social Systems. Proof of Concept for a Graphical Models Approach. In: Science and engineering ethics 22 (6), S. 1761-1779. DOI: 10.1007/s11948-015-9743-0
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26689413 Abstract: This paper presents a proof of concept for a graphical models approach to assessing the moral coherence and moral robustness of systems of social interactions. "Moral coherence" refers to the degree to which the rights and duties of agents within a system are effectively respected when agents in the system comply with the rights and duties that are recognized as in force for the relevant context of interaction. "Moral robustness" refers to the degree to which a system of social interaction is configured to ensure that the interests of agents are effectively respected even in the face of noncompliance. Using the case of conscientious objection of pharmacists to filling prescriptions for emergency contraception as an example, we illustrate how a graphical models approach can help stakeholders identify structural weaknesses in systems of social interaction and evaluate the relative merits of alternate organizational structures. By illustrating the merits of a graphical models approach we hope to spur further developments in this area.
Keywords: Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Graphic model concerning "moral robustness" and "moral coherence", graphical models approach, Human Rights, Humans, Kommunikations-/Interaktionsprinzipien, machine learning, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Models, Theoretical, Moral, moral agents, moralische Gesetze, moralische Kohärenz, moralische Robustheit, Moralphilosophie, Morals, non/compliance, Philosophie, Respektieren und Erfüllen von Interessen von Agenten, Respektieren von Rechten und Pflichten von Agenten, Social Environment, social interaction, Social Responsibility, Moraltheorie, soziale Interaktion, Soziale Angemessenheit, strukturelle Schwächen in sozialen Systemen, Technikphilosophie, Überblick -
(2016): Reply to My Interlocutors. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 168-176. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672855
Abstract: “Reply to My Interlocutors” responds to each contributor, not in order in the text, but in order of issues. Each interlocutor deals with important issues and I situate myself in relation to these. Dealing with Husserl from a twenty-first century position has called for a multiple layered time response, since I find much of his philosophy of science highly outdated. The origins of the various chapters take place over several decades of time.
-
(2016): From Interrelational Ontology to Instrumental Ethics. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 112-128. DOI: 10.5840/techne20168857
Abstract: Current human/social science research supports Don Ihde’s postphenomenology. In particular, archeology and anthropology support Ihde’s instrumental realism, and history identifies the culture that nourished Platonic and Aristotelian separation of mentality and materiality. Deweyean pragmatism, beginning with his analysis of the reflex arc, supports both instrumental realism and an interrelational ontology that rejects the residual Cartesian dualism in Husserlian phenomenology. Ihde’s acknowledgment of the affinity between postphenomenology and Deweyean pragmatism enables expanding his prevalent epistemological and structural orientation to encompass a normative dimension. Peter-Paul Verbeek’s focus on the ethical dimension of how products are designed and how things interact with humans is an important expansion of pragmatic postphenomenology as well as an expansion of current research on the “4e’s” of cognition—embedded, embodied, enacted, and extended—to include a fifth: ethical.
-
(2016): On Technological Rationality and the Lack of Authenticity in the Modern Age. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (1), S. 34-50. DOI: 10.5840/techne201632445
Abstract: I will argue in this paper that Andrew Feenberg has erred in his claim on technological adaptability. Adapting to modern technology may not always be liberating. Drawing from his reflections on Heidegger and Marcuse, I will explain why Feenberg thinks that adaptability has a redemptive role in the midst of technological domination. I will also show why technological domination still characterizes human relations in the modern age. Advanced technologies including social media, have continued to manipulate people and as such, diminish rather than deepen the authenticity of human life. For instance, two people in a café sometimes spend more time on their smartphones rather than valuing their face-to-face encounter; here, one can point out the lack of authenticity in human relations. This clearly manifests how consumer culture has taken over human life. In addition, it can be said that the notion of adaptability also fails to account for the hegemonic social relations created by modern technological innovations, since these gadgets remain beyond the reach of the masses, thus broadening the divide between classes of people in society. In order to address this, I propose that people should use technology in a socially sensitive way in order to truly give meaning to their lives and to effectively resist the totalitarian tendency of the modern age.
-
(2016): Dispose After Expiration Date. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 129-136. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672753
Abstract: This article argues that there are three key claims of postphenomenology: first, that there is no immediate access to a phenomena that is not always already embodied; second, that there is no science that is not determined by a technology, and that technologies are instances of certain theoretical assumptions and perspectives; third, that all technoscience is enabled and mediated by the embodied perception that takes place in and through instrumentation, which leads to the insight that all scientific evidence is manufactured perception. There is critical engagement with Ihde’s take on pragmatism and it is argued that he makes too severe a distinction between embodied praxis and communicative action, between practices of embodiment and practices of communicating. The argument is that the technoscientific body is a communicative body. The article closes with the consideration of Ihde’s provocative thesis that we ought to think of philosophical systems as having expiration or obsolesce dates. The author recalls the important work of German-Jewish philosopher Günther Anders in order to think through the sense in which it is not so much our technologies that expire, but our ethical worldviews that are made discrepant and incommensurate with the challenges our technologies throw at us. It is argued that we have to make distinction between obsolesce, on the one hand, and error or failure, on the other.
-
(2016): Breaching or Building Social Boundaries?. In: Communication Research 25 (6), S. 689-715. DOI: 10.1177/009365098025006006
Abstract: Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is sometimes heralded for its power to break down social boundaries and to liberate individuals from social influence, group pressure, and status and power differentials that characterize much face-to-face interaction. We review research conducted within the framework of the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) demonstrating that this is not always the case. When communicators share a common social identity, they appear to be more susceptible to group influence, social attraction stereotyping, gender typing, and discrimination in anonymous CMC. Although CMC gives us the opportunity to traverse social boundaries, paradoxically, it can also afford these boundaries greater power, especially when they define self- and group identity.
Keywords: breach of social interaction, computervermittelte Kommunikation, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Favoriten, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Kommunikation, Macht, Mediationstheorie, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE), Soziale Angemessenheit, soziale Grenzen, Soziale Rolle, sozialer Einfluss, sozialer Status, Technik, Technikphilosophie, (Theory of) technological mediation, Überblick -
(2016): Husserl's Missing Multistability. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 153-167. DOI: 10.5840/techne20168356
Abstract: The notion of “multistability” is a central fixture of the postphenomenological framework of thought, one of the central ideas that enables this perspective to avoid both shallow determinism and instrumentalism. While this notion has been put to use in numerous case studies and theoretical treatments, here I argue that the work of following out the philosophical implications of technological multistability has only just begun. Don Ihde’s new book, Husserl’s Missing Technologies, provides a helpful jumping off point as he provides a leading-edge formulation of this idea. I continue with an attempt to sketch out the vast philosophical ground opened up by this concept, and review the contemporary work by postphenomenologists that is just starting to explore this new terrain.
-
(2016): Ihde and Husserl. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 84-89. DOI: 10.5840/techne201620247
Abstract: A Symposium on Don Ihde's Husserl's Missing Technologies The contributions to this special issue of Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology have asembled together to use the publication of Don Ihde's newest book, Husserl's Missing Technologies, as a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging discussion about the phenomenology of technology. The following contributions reflect Ihde's own interdisciplinarity, philosophical pluralism, and empirical orientation. And they touch on an assortment of issues and themes, including acoustic technologies, Galileo's biography, American pragmatism, the lifespan of philosophical ideas, big data, and philosophical methodology.
-
(2016): Ihde’s Missing Sciences. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 137-152. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672754
Abstract: In Husserl’s Missing Technologies, Don Ihde urges us to think deeply and critically about the ways in which the technologies utilized in contemporary science structure the way we perceive and understand the natural world. In this paper, I argue that we ought to extend Ihde’s analysis to consider how such technologies are changing the way we perceive and understand ourselves too. For it is not only the natural or “hard” sciences which are turning to advanced technologies for help in carrying out their work, but also the social and “human” sciences. One set of tools in particular is rapidly being adopted—the family of information technologies that fall under the umbrella of “big data.” As in the natural sciences, big data is giving researchers in the human sciences access to phenomena which they would otherwise be unable to experience and investigate. And like the former, the latter thereby shape the ways those scientists perceive and understand who and what we are. Looking at two case studies of big data-driven research in the human sciences, I begin in this paper to suggest how we might understand these phenomenological and hermeneutic changes.
-
(2016): Ihde, Technoscience, and the Resilience of Phenomenology. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 90-94. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672550
Abstract: My review of Don Ihde’s new book, Husserl’s Missing Technologies begins by identifying a thematic link binding its chapters: specifically, the exploration of alternative histories for the trajectory of classical Husserlian phenomenology. Ihde’s book can be seen as a meditation on questions like the following: “What might phenomenology have been had Husserl paid more attention to the essential role of instrumentation and experiment in science, or to the mediating role of technologies in perception? What road might phenomenology have taken had Husserl traveled it in conversation with John Dewey, rather than the ghost of Descartes?” The book ably demonstrates how such alternative paths might have enriched philosophy, in ways that closely mirror Ihde’s own contributions to postphenomenological thought. In particular, Ihde exposes Husserl’s failure to grasp technoscience as an activity that does not only reduce materiality to mathematical formalisms, but produces new material forms and sensibilities. Yet I resist the book’s implied charge that Husserlian phenomenology is a moribund tradition that has largely exhausted its power. Instead, I argue that the progressive force and intrinsic elasticity of the phenomenological method endures in spite of the inevitable limits of Husserl’s philosophical imagination, allowing his assumptions and results (and ours) to be remade again and again in the light of the ‘things themselves.’ Moreover, the relevance of Husserl’s critique of reductive scientism has enduring relevance today; while modern science may be a practice far richer than Husserl understood, the science of our day is far from rich enough.
-
(2016): Variations upon Ihde’s Husserl’s Missing Technologies. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 20 (2), S. 105-111. DOI: 10.5840/techne201672752
Abstract: In his new book, Husserl’s Missing Technologies, Don Ihde provides yet another, and highly enriching, iteration of postphenomenology. My comments here concern a couple of observations that he makes along the way with regard to the “scientific” status of philosophy and the question of whether philosophies, like technologies, have “use-lifes.” These remarks actually pierce through to the core of the postphenomenological theoretical corpus. In particular, there are consequences for the concept of multistability that need to be discussed: Are some stabilities better than others? In asking that question, which deserves the most emphasis: actuality or potentiality? And to what extent is there a continuity between “ideas” (i.e., theories) and technologies?