Technology and the Good Life?

Technology and the Good Life? Eric Higgs, Andrew Light, and David Strong, editors. Chicago & London, UK: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data classifies this anthology of essays under 1. Technology — Philosophy and 2. Technology — Social aspects. A main starting point: Albert Borgmann's Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1984):

Blending social analysis and philosophy, Albert Borgmann maintains that technology creates a controlling pattern in our lives. This pattern [...] sharply divides life into labor and leisure, it sustains the industrial democracies, and it fosters the view that the earth itself is a technological device. He argues that technology has served us as well in conquering hunger and disease, but that when we turn to it for richer experiences, it leads instead to a life dominated by effortless and thoughtless consumption. Borgmann does not reject technology but calls for public conversation about the nature of the good life. [...][1]

From the back cover blurb:

Can we use technology in the pursuit of a good life, or are we doomed to lives organized and priorities set by the demands of machines and systems? How can philosophy help us make technology a servant rather than a master?

Technology and the Good Life? uses a careful collective analysis of Albert Borgmann's[2][3] controversial and influential ideas[4] (which it also summarizes) as a jumping-off point from which to address questions about the role of technology in our lives. Contributors both sympathetic and critical examine Borgmann's work, especially his "device paradigm";[5] apply his theories to new areas such as film, agriculture, design, and ecological restoration; and consider the place of his thought within philosophy and technology studies more generally.

Another blurb, from Langdon Winner: The contributors to this anthology "renew the age-old debate about humans and their tools, confronting issues of great consequence that today's high tech innovators (and the rest of us) ignore at our peril." And Joseph Margolis[6] praises "this sprightly collection" — and "sprightly" isn't a word often applied to academic writing! — for providing "an excellent history and analysis of the deep connection between technology and the human condition."

Of potential interest:

"Introduction" by the editors, including notice of predecessors such as the work of Jacques Ellul, Lewis Mumford,[7] and Martin Heidegger.[8]

I. Philosophy of Technology Today
 1. "Borgmann's Philosophy of Technology" by David Strong and Eric Higgs
 2. "Philosophy of Technology: Retrospective and Prospective Views" by Paul T. Durbin

II. Evaluating Focal Things 
 [Unlike devices as just a means to an end, "A focal thing is something of ultimate concern and significance, which may be masked by the device paradigm, and must be preserved by its intimate connection with practice."][9]
 4. "Technology and Nostalgia" by Gordon G. Britton Jr.

III. Theory in the Service of Practice
 8. "The Moving Image: Between Devices and Things" by Phillip R. Fandozzi [A vindication of cinema, with reference also to Martin Heidegger on Vincent Van Gogh's non-moving image(s) of A Pair of Shoes (1886/88, p. 155).]
 10. "Design and the Reform of Technology: Venturing out into the Open" buy Jesse S. Tatum ["Exploring both real and hypothetical examples, this chapter [...] offers a new, if preliminary, st of guidelines for the move out into the open that any genuine reform of technology will imply. My discussion of reform proceeds through a new approach to the design process" (p. 183). 

IV. Extensions and Controversies
 13. Crossing the Postmodern Divide with Bormann, or Adventures in Cyberspace" by Douglas Kellner

RDE, finishing, 3,8Mar23