of Philosophy and Technology

Philosophy is about things that we already know – truth, knowledge, goodness, beauty, reality, reason, life, death, and more. It’s all about the things that are already there. It’s like the furniture that we have, the computer that we use and the car that we drive. So, if it’s the study of things that are already there, why should I care about it?

Using the furniture as an example, do you know what kind of wood was used and how much does it cost?  How about your computer? What OS are you using and can you manipulate it or does it manipulate you?  What is the make of your car? What’s the mileage and when is the last time you had it tuned-up? Do we ask these questions or we just use these ordinary things around us without any care?  If we ask these questions, we could look at this ordinary things in a different way, we could appreciate these ordinary things better than the “ordinary man” that only use these things.

Thru Philosophy, we could look at these realities in a different perspective. We could accept death better than someone who did not study the realities of life.  We could appreciate the real meaning of beauty because as students of Philosophy we have known what its absence means.

“It is by studying Philosophy, in a clear, step-by-step way, and by profiting from the thought of the great philosophers of the past, that one gains real insight” about the things that we thought we already know about.

My Cordelia!

In old tales we can read that a river fell in love with a girl. Thus is my soul like a river, which loves you. Sometimes it is tranquil and lets your image mirror itself deep and unmoved in it, sometimes it has the illusion of having caught your image, then its wave curls in order prevent you from escaping again; sometimes it softly curls its surface and plays with your image, sometimes it has lost it, then will its wave become black and despairing. So is my soul; like a river that has fallen in love with you.

Your Johannes

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Each man has a seducer within,  once a woman is conquered there is a tendency for men to lose their interest in the subject.  

Johannes in the Diary of the Seducer lured the woman into his embarce using many twisted and manipulative ways, having given herself fully, he then lose interest in her.  After mentally manipulating her, he then made her think that it was her that broke the relationship.  Manipulating her till the end…

Plato and Confucius agree that if only each and every citizen would do the things expected of them, there would be harmony.

Confucius believed that social disorder resulted from failing to call things by their proper names, and his solution was “Rectification of Names/Terms”. Confucius said: “There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son.”

Names should directly correspond with actualities.  Soldiers should do their part to protect the land and not act like rulers; actors should  entertain people and not attempt to rule in the guise of public service, businessman should do what is expected of them and provide people’s needs and gain profit in the process fairly and not dictate their terms to the people.

Someone who is sick is expected to go to a doctor. A car needs a mechanic and not a carpenter notwithstanding his desire to help.  Someone could go to a quack doctor but it’s his choice, if he dies, he dies alone. I could ask a carpenter to check my car, but if something wrong happen to me, it is only me who will be affected. But if an unqualified candidate wins the whole country will suffer.

Who then is qualified to rule the country?

Plato proposed that philosophers are the right candidates to assume the responsibility of ruling the society.

Like Confucius Plato believed that different people have different skills.  The ideal society is controlled by an Elite group of rulers.  The policing powers and administrative functions are done by the military under the direction of the rulers and farmers and businessmen are expected to feed the country. Each has its own function and when done properly the society would attain harmony and progress.

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“Childish leaders oppress my people, and women rule over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you; they send you down the wrong road.” – Isaiah 3:12

The philosophy of technology is a philosophical field dedicated to studying the nature of technology and its social effects.

Considered under the rubric of the Greek term techne (art, or craft knowledge), the philosophy of technology goes to the very roots of Western philosophy. In his Republic, Plato sees techne as the basis for the philosophers’ proper rule in the city. In the Nicomachean Ethics (Book 6), Aristotle describes techne as one of the four ways that we can know about the world. The Stoics argued that virtue is a kind of techne based upon a proper understanding of the universe.

Whereas 19th Century philosophers such as Karl Marx were philosophically interested in tools and techniques, the most prominent 20th century philosophers to directly address modern technology were John Dewey and Martin Heidegger. Both saw technology as central to modern life, although (to speak roughly) Dewey was optimistic about the role of technology, Heidegger pessimistic. Dewey’s work on technology was dispersed throughout his corpus, while Heidegger’s major work on technology may be found in The Question Concerning Technology.

In the 1960’s, Marshall McLuhan became a major radical voice in the field, with such works as The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Major contemporary philosophers of technology include Gilbert Simondon, Albert Borgmann, Don Ihde, Jean Baudrillard, Andrew Feenberg, Paul Levinson, Larry Hickman, Carl Mitcham, and Donna Haraway. Possibly the most important living philosopher of technology is Bernard Stiegler.

source: Wikipedia