What does it mean to think about technology philosophically? Why try? These are the issues that Carl Mitcham addresses in this work, a comprehensive, critical introduction to the philosophy of technology and a discussion of its sources and uses.
Tracing the changing meaning of "technology" from ancient times to our own, Mitcham identifies the most important traditions of critical analysis of technology: the engineering approach, which assumes the centrality of technology in human life; and the humanities approach, which is concerned with its moral and cultural boundaries.
Mitcham...

An analysis of the relationship between technology, ethics and culture. It covers topics that include: environmental ethics and the recovery of culture; media, identity and politics; technological enlightenment as a continuation of modern thinking; and, the rhetoric of eugenics.

Hardbound. This volume of Research in Philosophy and Technology is guest edited by Marina Banchetti-Robino in association with Don E. Marietta Jr. and Lester Embree. In her introduction to the 10 major theme papers that deal with Philosophies of the Environment and Technology, Banchetti-Robino gives an account of the origin of this original collection, of the importance of the theme, and of the interrelated arguments advanced relative to the theme. This set of papers by a number of well-known figures in philosophical studies both on the environment and on technology - namely J. Baird...

Hardbound. Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume 19 advances philosophical reflections on technology through a focus on metaphysical and epistemological issues. The contributors employ the resources of both the phenomenological and analytical traditions of contemporary philosophy in their work.Contributions include general proposals for the reform of the philosophy of technology; examinations of the work of major philosophers including Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Jonas, Ihde, and Merleau-Ponty; an extended argument for a more careful delineation of the difference between science and...

Who owns your genes? What does climate science imply for policy? Do corporations conduct honest research? Should we teach intelligent design? Humans are creating a new world through science. The kind of world we are creating will not simply be decided by expanding scientific knowledge, but will depend on views about good and bad, right and wrong. These visions, in turn, depend on critical thinking, cogent argument and informed judgement. In this book, Adam Briggle and Carl Mitcham help readers to cultivate these skills. They first introduce ethics and the normative structure of science and...

Until recently, the philosophy and history of science proceeded in a separate way from the philosophy and history of technology, and indeed with respect to both science and technology, philosophical and historical inquiries were also following their separate ways. Now we see in the past quarter-century how the philosophy of science has been profoundly in- fluenced by historical studies of the sciences, and no longer concerned so single-mindedly with the analysis of theory and explanation, with the re- lation between hypotheses and experimental observation. Now also we see the traditional...