Quest for Meaning, Fall 2005

The Scientific/Technological Self

Science, Romanticism and Technology

PHILOSOHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

definition: the study of methods of investigating the world

Questions:
1. What is the difference between invention and creation?
2. Should we question what scientists are doing?
3. Does science have ultimate answers?
4. How can we be human in an age of machines?

Romanticism originates in Germany and England in the late 18 th century and lasts
until the mid 19th century. Romanticism is a revolt against reason, authority, tradition and
order. Romanticism arose as a reaction to the Enlightenment with its emphasis on working
within the limits of reason alone. The Romantics emphasized the freedom of individuals to
interpret life in their own way. Romanticism reveals a period of restless experimentation
with an emphasis on individual self-expression. The Romantics were against any system
that limited human experience.
In music Beethoven was the first of these free artists. Art took on the role of
expressing what could not be expressed. During this time we have the beginnings of the
Gothic novel where horror and evil were mixed with natural beauty.
While Aristotle defined the human being as a rational animal, the Romantics saw the
human being as irrational. Romanticism derived its inspiration from a variety of sources
such as the Middle Ages, the Orient and Mysticism. The Romantic Movement was Europes
first student uprising. The Romantics could be seen as the hippies of the 18 th century or
the punk and grunge movement of its time.
The British Romantics include William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron,
John Keats, Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley. German Romantics include the philosopher
Schelling, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and the Grimm brothers who collected fairy tales.
The American Romantics include Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
American Romanticism displays an interest in nature as a source of imagination and
intuition. It develops an accent on mystery and the strange aspects of being human.
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) mixed terror and suspense with romantic sensibility. The
Gothic interest in crumbling buildings surrounded by natural beauty revealed the dual
nature of the human being. These Gothic elements are evident in Mary Shelleys novel
Frankenstein. Shelley writes:

Whence I often asked myself did the principle of life proceed?.... to examine
the causes of life we must first have recourse to death. I became acquainted
with the science of anatomy....Darkness had no effect upon my fancy; and a
church-yard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life...I saw
how the fine form of Man was degraded and wasted. After days and nights of
incredible laborr and fatigue I succeeded in discovering the cause of
generation and life, nay, more I became myself capable of bestowing
animation upon lifeless matter...a new species would bless me as its creator
and source.... But now that I had finished the beauty of the dream vanished
and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart....I beheld the wretch- the
miserable monster whom I had created.

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If we had the leisure we would devote much time to studying this passage. But we can
chose a single word: animation.
Animate comes from the Latin animare which means to quicken or to endow with
breathe or soul. It is related to the Old English word Othian which means to breathe the
Greek Anemos or breath, the Sanskrit aniti which means he breathes and the Hebrew
word Ruah which means breath or spirit.
To animate is to give spirit and to bring to life. Shelleys point is that science cannot
create life. It is woman that brings life forth. Science when it plays God creates
monstrosity. The creation of life belongs to God alone. Dr. Frankenstein animates a corpse.
This means that he brings death back. He animates death. He does not create something
new. At best scientists can be seen as animationists or puppet masters. The animated
cartoon is a series of drawings transferred to a sequence of pages so that rapid flipping of
the pages produces an illusion of movement in the objects that are drawn. Culture
becomes the illusion of movement and progress. Culture and science repackage death as
life. We become the aliens and the alienated. We become alienated from what it means to
be human which is to be mortal.
The question of Romanticism and of Romance is what do we embrace? Life or
death? The Gothic Novel shows us the danger of embracing death by forgetting life and
what is alive. What does science and technology embrace when it attempts to invent and
make?

Martin Heidegger and the Question Concerning Technology

Modern Science gives us technology. The essence of technological is not

technological. We remain unfree and chained to technology. We can do barely nothing
without it. Technology can be seen as a means to an end. I used this chalk (the means) to
write on the board (the end or result). Technology is also human activity. We use
equipment, tools, machines. We manufacture things in order to use them. Technology as an
instrument allows us to arrange our world. The problems start occurring when
arrangement becomes control and manipulation. This mastery becomes urgent as
technology threatens to slip from human control. Philosophy has shown us that there are
four causes.
1. The material cause- the material out of which something is made.
2. The formal cause- the form or shape something takes.
3. The final cause- the purpose for which a thing is made.
4. The efficient cause- the effect, the person or thing responsible for something
having been made.

Technology brings something forth. It brings it to Presence and makes it present before us.
The Greek word for bringing forth is Poiesis. To Bring-Forth is to reveal. When something
is Revealed it comes out of concealment (hidden) into Un-concealment(seen). The Greek
word for revealing is Aletheia. The essence of technology to the Ancient Greeks is aletheia
or revealing.
The word technology comes from the Greek word techne. For the Greeks techne was
a bringing forth of poiesis. Poiesis brought forth the true and the beautiful. In Modern
times Techne is understood in terms of episteme or knowledge. What is important in
techne is not the tekton or builder, inventor, etc. but what is revealed. What is revealed in
what is built by the Architect or First-Builder? The revealing that rules in modern
technology is a challenging which puts nature to an unreasonable demand. Challenge
means to accuse, to be in dispute or to threaten. Modern technology threatens nature
along with threatening humanity. The human or Da-Sein; the being-who-is-there threatens
itself with what it makes.
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 Heidegger tells us that the work of the farmer does not challenge the soil of the
field. The wind-mill does not challenge the wind. The hydro-electric plant challenges the
river and life along it. The bridge that joins the two banks of the river does not. While we
can reveal through technology, we do not have control over un-concealment. In other
words, once the thing is exposed the outcome cannot be controlled. We are therefore en-
framed by technology. The German word is Ge-Stell.
The Ge-Stell or en-framing traps nature. It takes its forces and stores them in
reserve to be used later. Think of gas and oil reserves etc. Modern Physics begins in the
17th century. Machine power technology begins in the 18 th century. But the essence of
technology as the en-framing is older and cannot be dated. Technology threatens us and
yet we consider ourselves to be Lords of the earth. En-framing endangers us in our
relationship to ourselves, to others and with everything else that is. Because technology
orders things according to our needs it drives out every other possibility of revealing. At
one time techne revealed what was radiant: the Greek temple, the Egyptian Pyramids etc.
We have flourescent lights and the Niagara Falls strip. The bringing forth of the true into
the beautiful was called techne. In ancient Greece the arts brought the divine and human
together so that beauty shone forth and endured. The ancient Greeks had a poetic
revealing. Because our technology is based on power/knowledge we have revealed the
ugly and the dangerous. The struggle for Dominion over the earth dominates our lives so
that it may lead to our destruction.
Greek science was never exact. The understanding of body and place was different
from our own. We should not assume that modern science is better than ancient science.
No one would maintain that Shakespeares poetry is more advanced than that of
Sophocles or the T.S. Eliots poetry is better than Shakespeares. If we want to understand
the essence of modern science we have to stop comparing the old with the new. The
essence of modern science is research. Research proceeds according to a plan or design.
Whereas ancient science wanted to understand the thing-in-the-world, modern science
wants to control the thing. The essential phenomena of the modern age is science that
gives rise to modern technology. Science today means something totally different from the
way in which it was understood by the ancient Greeks. Modern Science with its
methodology, investigation, experimentation and explanation wants to reveal everything
for the sake of further control. For all its claim to certainty modern science proceeds
without certainty, for example in the explosion of the atom bomb, in the use of chemicals
or in its use of pharmaceuticals, in its use of experiments on humans and animals.
Modern science is institutionalized. It proceeds and lives from government funding.
Most scientists work for the military. The government now indicates what will be
researched. For example, we want a bomb capable of doing x, y or z. Science is now driven
away from the Truth and toward the acquisition of power. The scholar or philosopher
disappears along with academic freedom. The scholar is replaced by the scientific
researcher who serves the interests of the institution. This is the modern world picture. In
these institutions you are taught no in order to free yourself from ignorance. You are
taught to serve the already existing establishment. In order to be capable of thinking
critically we need to learn how to think. We learn to think by paying attention to what
there is to think about. Modern Science does not think. We can only learn to think if we
radically unlearn what has been offered to us in the past as thinking. What calls us to
think? The Question calls us to think. As long as we continue to question we will be on the
path toward critical thinking. Thinking critically examines what it means to dwell and what
it means to build. To dwell is to inhabit. Not every building is a dwelling. Bridges,
stadiums, highways, hospitals, railway stations are built, but they are not dwelling places.
The truck driver is at home on the highway but he does not have his shelter there. The
engineer is at home in the power station but she does not have her dwelling there.
Buildings house us. We inhabit them. We do not dwell in them. Our houses may provide
shelter but are they dwellings?

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 The German verb bauen means to build. It is related tot he word Bin which means to
be. To be means to dwell. Ich bin- I am. Du bist- you are. I dwell. You dwell. The way in
which you are and I am is dwelling. The manner in which we humans are on the earth is
dwelling. To be human means to be on the earth as mortal. We are insofar as we dwell. To
dwell also means to cherish, to protect, to preserve, to care for what is human. To dwell
also means to remain or to stay in place. What does language say to us. The Old English
word dwellan means to go astray. The Gothic word dwalmon means to be mad. When did
we go astray? When did we begin to go mad? We go astray and go mad when we wander
from our humanity; when we no longer want to be human; when we no longer want to
dwell on earth. Human-Being consists in dwelling and dwelling means to remain as
mortals on the earth. On the earth means under the sky. It does not mean on the Moon or
on Mars. Mortals are human beings. They are called mortals because they can die.
Because we fear mort or death we wander from being human and embrace the machine,
the cyborg, power, and destruction. This is the danger that technology gives us to think
about. What does it mean to be human? This is the question that I wish to explore with
you.

What is Technology?

1. Technology as Objects:Tools, machines, instruments, weapons, appliances - the physical

devices of technical performance
2. Technology as Knowledge: The know-how behind technological innovation
3. Technology as Activities: What people do - their skills, methods, procedures, routines
4. Technology as a Process: Begins with a need and ends with a solution
5. Technology as a Socio-technical System:The manufacture and use of objects involving
people and other objects in combination

Technology has a number of distinct characteristics:

1. It is Related to Science?
Although there is certainly a relationship between science and technology, there is, except
in certain high technology industries, very little technology that could be classified as
applied science. Technology is marked by different purposes, different processes a
different relationship to established knowledge and a particular relationship to specific
contexts of activity.

2. It Involves Design
At the center of technology lies design. That design is the very core of engineering is
affirmed by the requirement that all degree engineering courses should embody it. The
design process in technology is a sequential process which begins with the perception of a
need, continues with the formulation of a specification, the generation of ideas and a
solution, and ends with an evaluation of the solution.

3. It Involves Making
The motivating factor behind all technological activity is the desire to fulfil a need. For this
reason all designs should be made or realised - whether that be through prototype, batch-
or mass- production or some form of three-dimensional or computer model - if the need is
to be truly fulfilled, the design is to be legitimately evaluated, and the design activity is to
have been purposeful and worthwhile.

4. It is Multi-Dimensional
Not only may design and production involve co-operation between different specialties
(between, for example, designer, production engineer and materials scientist), but may
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involve technologists in performing a multitude of functions, such as working with others,
operating within budgets, persuading decision makers, communicating to clients and
working to deadlines.

5. It Is Concerned With Values

Technology is informed by values at every point. Value decisions may be called for not only
in relation to the specific design criteria (i.e. aesthetic, ergonomic and economic
judgements, suitability for purpose and ease of manufacture) but also in relation to the
rightness or wrongness of a particular solution in ethical terms.

6. It is Socially Shaped/Shaping
Of the potential new technologies available at any one time only a few are developed and
become widely implemented. In this way technology is shaped by society, by consumer
choice. yet it could also be argued that technology shapes society - the technology of the
motor car, for example, has shaped our environment and our whole way of life.

Technology and Order: Jacques Ellul

Ellul sees technology replacing nature. The technical order is artificial and this
artificiality links up with other technologies. Technology does not influence society
according to Ellul. Society is situated within technology. Technology organizes individuals
through psychological techniques. Psychological techniques modify humanity to make
human beings conform to the technological environment. According to Ellul we are totally
dominated by technological values. Our goals and happiness are represented and achieved
through the techniques provided by technology. In other words, what we want is only what
technology offers, i.e. new car, new phones, new devices etc.
Human beings are the objects of certain techniques. These techniques can be
educational, psychological, vocational etc. In these instances human beings can be treated
as objects. Those who exploit others for Ellul are masters of the techniques they use to
exploit others. For example, think of the cellular phone and then the costs you are charged
for air-time, as if air and time could be owned.
Ellul argues that we are spiritually taken over by technology. Individuals believe in
what they do. They are the experts of that technological society. They themselves are
technicized. They see technology as the only good. Technology and techniques become the
only values. Technology insofar as it is controlling takes away freedom through the work of
the technician. The technician is a specialist in a certain type of technology. While they
cannot dominate or control the entire field of technology they can control certain parts of
the technological machine. Post-modern thinkers like Michel Foucault would be very
critical of technologies that control. Elluls book on technology and order was written in
1964 when new machines were beginning to replace workers. Ellul found such automation
to be disturbing for human freedom.
Seventy-Six Reasonable Questions to Ask About Any Technology
by the Jacques Ellul Society

ECOLOGICAL:
_ What are its effects on the health of the planet and of the person?
_ Does it preserve or destroy bio-diversity?
_ Does it preserve or reduce ecosystem integrity?
_ What are its effects on the land?
_ What are its effects on wildlife?

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 _ How much, and what kind of waste does it generate?
_ Does it incorporate the principles of ecological design?
_ Does it break the bond of renewal between humans and nature?
_ Does it preserve or reduce cultural diversity?
_ What is the totality of its effects, its "ecology"?
SOCIAL:
_ Does it serve community?
_ Does it empower community members?
_ How does it affect our perception of our needs?
_ Is it consistent with the creation of a communal, human economy?
_ What are its effects on relationships?
_ Does it undermine conviviality?
_ Does it undermine traditional forms of community?
_ How does it affect our way of seeing and experiencing the world?
_ Does it foster a diversity of forms of knowledge?
_ Does it build on, or contribute to, the renewal of traditional forms of knowledge?
_ Does it serve to commodity knowledge or relationships?
_ To what extent does it redefine reality?
_ Does it erase a sense of time and history?
_ What is its potential to become addictive?
PRACTICAL:
_ What does it make?
_ Who does it benefit?
_ What is its purpose?
_ Where was it produced?
_ Where is it used?
_ Where must it go when it's broken or obsolete?
_ How expensive is it?
_ Can it be repaired?
_ By an ordinary person?
MORAL:
_ What values does its use foster?
_ What is gained by its use?
_ What are its effects beyond its utility to the individual?
_ What is lost in using it?
_ What are its effects on the least advantaged in society?
ETHICAL:
_ How complicated is it?
_ What does it allow us to ignore?
_ To what extent does it distance agent from effect?

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 _ Can we assume personal, or communal responsibility for its effects?
_ Can its effects be directly apprehended?
_ What ancillary technologies does it require?
_ What behavior might it make possible in the future?
_ What other technologies might it make possible?
_ Does it alter our sense of time and relationships in ways conducive to nihilism?
VOCATIONAL:
_ What is its impact on craft?
_ Does it reduce, deaden, or enhance human creativity?
_ Is it the least imposing technology available for the task?
_ Does it replace, or does it aid human hands and human beings?
_ Can it be responsive to organic circumstance?
_ Does it depress or enhance the quality of goods?
_ Does it depress or enhance the meaning of work?
METAPHYSICAL:
_ What aspect of the inner self does it reflect?
_ Does it express love?
_ Does it express rage?
_ What aspect of our past does it reflect?
_ Does it reflect cyclical or linear thinking?
POLITICAL:
_ Does it concentrate or equalize power?
_ Does it require, or institute a knowledge elite?
_ It is totalitarian?
_ Does it require a bureaucracy for its perpetuation?
_ What legal empowerments does it require?
_ Does it undermine traditional moral authority?
_ Does it require military defense?
_ Does it enhance, or serve military purposes?
_ How does it affect warfare?
_ Is it massifying?
_ Is it consistent with the creation of a global economy?
_ Does it empower transnational corporations?
_ What kind of capital does it require?
AESTHETIC:
_ Is it ugly?
_ Does it cause ugliness?
_ What noise does it make?
_ What pace does it set?
_ How does it affect the quality of life (as distinct from the standard of living)?

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