Andrew Feenberg
Encyclopedia
Andrew Feenberg holds the Canada Research Chair
in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University
in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology
, continental philosophy
, critique of technology
and science and technology studies
. His work has been translated into Japanese, Italian, French, and Norwegian.
at the University of California San Diego and was awarded his PhD in 1972. During this time Feenberg was active in the New Left
, founding a journal entitled Alternatives and participating in the Mai ’68 events in Paris.
Feenberg provides the theoretical foundation for this idea through the Critical Theory of Technology which he develops over three books: The Critical Theory of Technology (1991) (re-published as Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited [2002]), Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory (1995), and Questioning Technology (1999). The basis of Feenberg’s critical theory of technology is a concept of dialectical technological rationality he terms instrumentalization theory. Instrumentalization theory combines the social critique of technology familiar from the philosophy of technology (Karl Marx
, Herbert Marcuse
, Martin Heidegger
, Jacques Ellul
) with insights taken from the empirical case studies of science and technology studies
. Applications of his theory include studies of online education, the Minitel
, the Internet, and digital games.
Feenberg has also published books and articles on the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse
, Martin Heidegger
, Jürgen Habermas
, Karl Marx, Georg Lukacs, and Kitarō Nishida.
Editor:
Canada Research Chairs
Canada Research Chairs are Canadian university research professorships created through the Canada Research Chairs Program.- Program goals :...
in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology
Philosophy of technology
The philosophy of technology is a philosophical field dedicated to studying the nature of technology and its social effects.- History :Considered under the rubric of the Greek term techne , the philosophy of technology goes to the very roots of Western philosophy.* In his Republic, Plato sees...
, continental philosophy
Continental philosophy
Continental philosophy, in contemporary usage, refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe. This sense of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and...
, critique of technology
Critique of technology
Critique of technology is an analysis of the negative impacts of technologies. It is argued that, in all advanced industrial societies , technology becomes a means of domination, control and exploitation, or more generally something which threatens the survival of humanity.Prominent authors...
and science and technology studies
Science and technology studies
Science, technology and society is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these, in turn, affect society, politics and culture...
. His work has been translated into Japanese, Italian, French, and Norwegian.
Background
Feenberg studied philosophy under Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
at the University of California San Diego and was awarded his PhD in 1972. During this time Feenberg was active in the New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
, founding a journal entitled Alternatives and participating in the Mai ’68 events in Paris.
Feenberg’s Philosophy of Technology
Feenberg’s primary contribution to the philosophy of technology is his argument for the democratic transformation of technology. From his book Transforming Technology,- "What human beings are and will become is decided in the shape of our tools no less than in the action of statesmen and political movements. The design of technology is thus an ontological decision fraught with political consequences. The exclusion of the vast majority from participation in this decision is profoundly undemocratic" (p.3).
Feenberg provides the theoretical foundation for this idea through the Critical Theory of Technology which he develops over three books: The Critical Theory of Technology (1991) (re-published as Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited [2002]), Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory (1995), and Questioning Technology (1999). The basis of Feenberg’s critical theory of technology is a concept of dialectical technological rationality he terms instrumentalization theory. Instrumentalization theory combines the social critique of technology familiar from the philosophy of technology (Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
, Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul was a French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist. He wrote several books about the "technological society" and the interaction between Christianity and politics....
) with insights taken from the empirical case studies of science and technology studies
Science and technology studies
Science, technology and society is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these, in turn, affect society, politics and culture...
. Applications of his theory include studies of online education, the Minitel
Minitel
The Minitel is a Videotex online service accessible through the telephone lines, and is considered one of the world's most successful pre-World Wide Web online services. It was launched in France in 1982 by the PTT...
, the Internet, and digital games.
Feenberg has also published books and articles on the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
, Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
, Karl Marx, Georg Lukacs, and Kitarō Nishida.
Books
Author:- Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory (Rowman and Littlefield, 1981; Oxford University Press, 1986)
- Critical Theory of Technology (Oxford University Press, 1991), later republished as Transforming Technology (Oxford University Press, 2002), see below.
- Alternative Modernity (University of California Press, 1995)
- Questioning Technology (Routledge, 1999).
- Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited (Oxford University Press, 2002).
- Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History (Routledge 2005).
- Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity (MIT Press, 2010).
Editor:
- w/ R. PippenRobert B. PippinRobert B. Pippin is an American philosopher. He is the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy, and the College at the University of Chicago....
& C.Webel, Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1988) - w/ A.HannayAlastair HannayAlastair Hannay is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo. He was born in Plymouth, England and has been a resident of Norway since 1961. He has written about and translated several works of Kierkegaard and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His parents were...
, Technology and the Politics 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. LeissWilliam LeissWilliam Leiss, OC, FRSC was President of the Royal Society of Canada from 1999-2001.Born in Long Island, New York at the end of 1939, he grew up in rural Pennsylvania. He began his university education in New Jersey, at Fairleigh Dickinson University, graduating in 1956 with a B.A. summa cum laude...
, The Essential Marcuse: Selected Writings of Philosopher and Social Critic Herbert Marcuse (Beacon Press, 2007).
Selected Articles
- "Technocracy & Rebellion". TELOSTELOS (journal)Telos is an academic journal published in the United States. It was founded in May 1968 to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective. It sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction...
08 (Summer 1971). New York: Telos Press - "Reification and the Antinomies of Socialist Thought," Telos, Winter 1971, pp. 93-118.
- "Lukacs and the Critique of 'Orthodox' Marxism." The Philosophical Forum. Volume III, Nos.3-4 (Spring/Summer 1972)
- "Introduction to the Kosik-Satre Exchange." Telos 25 (Fall 1975).
- "Transition or Convergence: Communism and the Paradox of Development." in Technology & Communist Culture: The Socio-Cultural Impact of Technology under Socialism, Frederick J. Fleron Jr. (ed.). Praeger Publishers, New York. (1977)
- "Technology Transfer and Cultural Change in Communist Societies." Technology and Culture, April 1979, pp. 348-354.
- "The Bias of Technology" in Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia, Bergin & Garvey Press, 1987, pp. 225-254.
- "A User's Guide to the Pragmatics of Computer Mediated Communication," Semiotica, July 1989, pp. 257-278.
- "The Ambivalence of Technology," Sociological Perspectives, Spring 1990, pp. 35-50
- "Experiential Ontology: The Origins of the Nishida Philosophy in the Doctrine of Pure Experience," with Yoko Arisaka, International Philosophical Quarterly, June 1990, pp. 173-204.
- "From Information to Communication: the French Experience with Videotex," in M. Lea, ed., Contexts of Computer-Mediated Communication, Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1992, pp. 168-187.
- "Marcuse or Habermas: Two Critiques of Technology," Inquiry, 39, 1996, pp. 45-70.
- "Reflections on the Distance Learning Controversy," The Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 24 (3) 1999, 337-348.
- "From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads," in E. Higgs, D.Strong, and A. Light, eds., Technology and the Good Life. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000. pp. 294-315.
- “The Online Community Debate: Citizens or Consumers?” with Maria Bakardjieva, in Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice, Feenberg and Barney eds., Rowman and Littlefield, 2004, pp. 1-28.
- “Modernity Theory and Technology Studies: Reflections on Bridging the Gap,” in Modernity and Technology, MIT Press, 2003, pp. 73-104.
- “The Technical Codes of Online Education,” with Edward Hamilton, Technē, Journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, Fall 2005, 9:1, pp. 94-123.
- “From the Critical Theory of Technology to the Rational Critique of Rationality,” Social Epistemology, Vol. 22, No. 1, January–March 2008, pp. 5–28
- "Rationalizing Play: A Critical Theory of Digital Gaming" with Sara M. Grimes, Information Society Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, March-April 2009, pp. 105-118.
- “Radical Philosophy of Technology: From Marx to Marcuse and Beyond,” Radical Philosophy Review, no. 1/2, vol. 12, pp. 199-217, 2009
External links
- Andrew Feenberg's homepage
- From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads online article by Andrew Feenberg discussing HeideggerMartin HeideggerMartin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, HabermasJürgen HabermasJürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
and BorgmannAlbert BorgmannAlbert Borgmann is an American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana.-Philosophy:...
. - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology Vol 9 No 3 Special Review Section Devoted to Andrew Feenberg's book Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History.
- Review of Community in the Digital Age by Arun Kumar Tripathi (ACM Ubiquity, Volume 5, Issue 28, Sept. 8 - Sept. 14, 2004).