Technology and Values: Essential Readings

by Craig Hanks (Editor)

Overview

This anthology features essays and book excerpts on technology and values written by preeminent figures in the field from the early 20th century to the present. It offers an in-depth range of readings on important applied issues in technology as well.

• Useful in addressing questions on philosophy, sociology, and theory of technology
• Includes wide-ranging coverage on metaphysics, ethics, and politics, as well as issues relating to gender, biotechnology, everyday artifacts, and architecture
• A good supplemental text for courses on moral or political problems in which contemporary technology is a unit of focus
• An accessible and thought-provoking book for beginning and advanced undergraduates; yet also a helpful resource for graduate students and academics

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405149006
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	05/04/2009
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Craig Hanks is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University-San Marcos, where he is past-chair of the Institutional Review Board. He was previously at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and was Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He specializes in philosophy of technology and applied philosophy, and has taught courses on engineering ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and philosophy of technology. He is author of Refiguring Critical Theory (2002) and editor of Inner Space/Outer Space: The Humanities, Technology and the Postmodern World (1993); his monograph, Technological Musings: Reflections on Technology and Values, is forthcoming.

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Table of Contents

List of figures

Acknowledgments

Source Acknowledgments

General Introduction

Section One: Theoretical Reflections on Technology

Part I: Introductory Considerations of Technology

1. Toward a Philosophy of Technology: Hans Jonas

2. Four Philosophies of Technology: Alan R. Drengson

3. The Relation of Science and Technology to Human Values: William W.Lowrance

4. A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans: Bruno Latour

5. Technology and Ethics: Kristen Shrader-Frechette

Part II: Considering the Autonomy of Technology

6. The Autonomy of Technology: Jacques Ellul

7. Artifice and Order: Langdon Winner

8. The Autonomy of Technology: Joseph Pitt

Part III: Existential and Phenomenological Considerations

9. The Question Concerning Technology: Martin Heidegger

10. Man the Technician: José Ortega y Gasset

11. Focal Things and Practices: Albert Borgmann

12. A Phenomenology of Technics: Don Ihde

Part IV: Critical Theory

13. The New Forms of Control: Herbert Marcuse

14. Technical Progress and the Social Life-World: Jürgen Habermas

15. The Critical Theory of Technology: Andrew Feenberg

Part V: Pragmatic Considerations

16. Science and Society: John Dewey

17. Technology and Community Life: Larry Hickman

Part VI: Feminist Considerations

18. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentith Century: Donna Haraway

19. Technological Ethics in a Different Voice: Diane P. Michelfelder

Section Two: Applied Reflections on Technology and Value

Part VII: Technology and Value in Everyday Life
Introduction

20. The Aesthetic Drama of the Ordinary: John McDermott

21: Domestic Technology: Labour-saving or Enslaving?: Judy Wajcman

22. Some Meanings of Automobiles: Douglas Browning

Part VIII: Values and BioTechnologies

Introduction

23. How Splendid Technologies Can Go Wrong: Daniel Callahan

24. Genetics and Reproductive Risk: Can Having Children be Immoral?: Laura M. Purdy

25. Preventing a Brave New World: Leon Kass

26: Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research: Embryos and Beyond: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín and Marin Gillis

27. Food for Thought: Nina V. Federoff and Nancy Marie Brown

28. Value Judgments and Risk Comparisons. The Case of Genetically Engineered Crops: Paul Thompson

Part IX: Urban Values

Introduction

29. The Highway and the City: Lewis Mumford

30. Designing Cities and Buildings as if They Were Ethical Choices: Jessica Woolliams

31. The Local History of Space: Steven Moore

32. Community: Joseph Grange

33. Urban Ecological Citizenship: Andrew Light

Part X: Environmental Values

Introduction

34. Why Mow?: Michael Pollan

35. Technology: Lori Gruen

36. Environment, Technology, and Ethics: Rajni Kothari

37. The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic: J. Baird Callicott

38. Deep Ecology: Bill Devall and George Sessions

39. Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique: Ramachandra Guha

40. Just Garbage: Peter S. Wenz

Part XI: Immediate Challenges: Information Technologies, Technological Systems and the Future of Human Values

Introduction

41. Philosophy of Information Technology: Carl Mitcham

42. Into the Electronic Millennium: Sven Birkerts

43. Why I Am not Going to Buy a Computer: Wendell Berry

44. In the Age of the Smart Machine: Shoshana Zuboff

45. The Social Life of Information: John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

46. The Quest For Universal Usability: Ben Shneiderman

Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This carefully selected and well organized collection of readings demonstrate the philosophical importance of technology and should be required reading to anyone wanting to find out how ubiquitous is technology in our lives. I cannot think of a better collection of texts if your task as a teacher is to engage students in questions about technology and values in their everyday lives."
–Gregory Fernando Pappas, Texas A&M University

Editorial Reviews

Overall, Technology and Values represents an excellent collection of readings, ranging from classical yet ever timely readings on the nature of technology itself, to cutting edge articles on recent technological developments in the applied sphere. Due to its unique broad and comprehensive coverage of the subject matter, coupled with its comprehensive bibliography, this book is an excellent tool for both graduate and undergraduate courses.”  (Agric Hum Values, 2011)

"For its size and scope this collection docs a remarkable job of addressing a critical need for greater scholarly and public attention to questions of technology and values in contemporary culture. It is a rich and versatile resource for anyone interested in such questions, and this reviewer hopes that future editions will only improve on its virtues." (Technology and Culture, April 2010)

From the Publisher