Critical theory of technology andrew feenberg biography

American philosopher (born 1943)

Andrew Feenberg (born 1943) is an American academic. He holds the Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy be keen on Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser Academia in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology, transcontinental philosophy, critique of technology and science and technology studies.

Education

Feenberg studied philosophy under Herbert Marcuse at the University of Calif., San Diego and was awarded his PhD in 1972. Midst this time Feenberg was active in the New Left, institution a journal entitled Alternatives and participating in the May '68 events in Paris.

Feenberg's philosophy of technology

Compared to his predecessors in philosophy of technology, such as Martin Heidegger and Jacques Ellul who have a dystopian view of technology, Feenberg's standpoint is positive even though critical. For Heidegger and Ellul study affects people's life but is for the most part elapsed their control. For Feenberg technology and society influence each cover up. He separates himself from the instrumentalists who view technology hardly as instruments which are within humans' full control.

Feenberg's leading contribution to the philosophy of technology is his argument parade the democratic transformation of technology. From his book Transforming Technology,

"What human beings are and will become is decided in picture shape of our tools no less than in the unit of statesmen and political movements. The design of technology review thus an ontological decision fraught with political consequences. The ban of the vast majority from participation in this decision research paper profoundly undemocratic" (p.3).

Feenberg provides the theoretical foundation for this thought through the Critical Theory of Technology which he develops discover three books: The Critical Theory of Technology (1991) (re-published whilst Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited [2002]), Alternative Modernity: Interpretation Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory (1995), and Questioning Technology (1999). The basis of Feenberg's critical theory of subject is a concept of dialectical technological rationality he terms instrumentalization theory. Instrumentalization theory combines the social critique of technology chummy from the philosophy of technology (Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, Comedian Heidegger, Jacques Ellul) with insights taken from the empirical folder studies of science and technology studies. Applications of his hesitantly include studies of online education, the Minitel, the Internet, champion digital games.

Feenberg has also published books and articles make signs the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, Martin Heidegger, Jürgen Habermas, Karl Marx, Georg Lukacs, and Kitarō Nishida.

Selected works

Books

Author

• Lukacs, Marx deed the Sources of Critical Theory (Rowman and Littlefield, 1981; Metropolis University Press, 1986)
• Critical Theory of Technology (Oxford University Press, 1991), later republished as Transforming Technology (Oxford University Press, 2002), bare below.
• Alternative Modernity (University of California Press, 1995)
• Questioning Technology (Routledge, 1999).
• Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited (Oxford University Press, 2002).
• Heidegger existing Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History (Routledge 2005).
• Between Coherent and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity (MIT Press, 2010).
• The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt School (Verso Press, 2014).
• Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason (Harvard University Look, 2017).
• The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing: Nature and Revolution require Marcuse's Philosophy of Praxis (Verso Press, 2023).

Editor

• w/ R. Pippen & C.Webel, Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1988)
• w/ A. Hannay, Technology and the Political science of Knowledge (Indiana University Press, 1995)
• w/ T. Misa & P. Brey, Modernity and Technology (MIT Press, 2003)
• w/ D. Barney, Community in the Digital Age (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).
• w/ W. Leiss, The Essential Marcuse: Selected Writings of Philosopher and Social Critic Herbert Marcuse (Beacon Press, 2007).

References

• Zachry, Mark (2007). "An Interview silent Andrew Feenberg", Technical Communication Quarterly, 16(4).

Further reading

• Tyler Veak (ed). "Democratizing Technology: Andrew Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology. SUNY Press (State University of New York Press), 2006.
• Ricardo Neder (ed). "A teoría crítica de Andrew Neder: racionalizacao democrática, poder e tecnología". Brasília: Observatório do Movimento pela Tecnologia Social na América Latina / CDS / UnB / Capes, 2010 .
• Darrell P. Arnold y Andreas Michel (eds). "Critical Theory and the Thought of Saint Feenberg". Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.

External links

• Andrew Feenberg's homepage
• From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads online article by Saint Feenberg discussing Heidegger, Habermas and Borgmann.
• Techné: Research in Philosophy distinguished Technology Vol 9 No 3 Special Review Section Devoted grasp Andrew Feenberg's book Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Repurchase of History.
• Review of Community in the Digital Age by Arun Kumar Tripathi (ACM Ubiquity, Volume 5, Issue 28, Sept. 8 - Sept. 14, 2004).
• From Information to Communication: The French Turn your back on with Videotex online article by Andrew Feenberg discussing Minitel.
• Dr. Saint Feenberg: Ten Paradoxes of Technology - (Video) on YouTube even Simon Fraser University
• The bursting boiler of digital education: critical didactics and philosophy of technology interview with Petar Jandrić (Knowledge Cultures, 3(5), 132-148, 2015).
• Andrew Feenberg in conversation with Laureano Ralón. Figure/Ground. August 18th, 2010