- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
-
Part One Philosophy of Technology Today -
One Borgmann's Philosophy of Technology -
Two Philosophy of Technology: Retrospective and Prospective Views -
Part Two Evaluating Focal Things -
Three Focal Things and Focal Practices -
Four Technology and Nostalgia -
Five Focaltechnics, Pragmatechnics, and the Reform of Technology -
Six Borgmann's Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen: On the Prepolitical Conditions of a Politics of Place -
Seven On Character and Technology -
Part Three Theory in the Service of Practice -
Eight The Moving Image: Between Devices and Things -
Nine Farming as Focal Practice -
Ten Design and the Reform of Technology: Venturing Out into the Open -
Eleven Nature by Design -
Part Four Extensions and Controversies -
Twelve Technological Ethics in a Different Voice -
Thirteen Crossing the Postmodern Divide with Borgmann, or Adventures in Cyberspace -
Fourteen Technology and Temporal Ambiguity -
Fifteen Trapped in Consumption: Modern Social Structure and the Entrenchment of the Device -
Sixteen From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads -
Seventeen Philosophy in the Service of Things -
Eighteen Reply to My Critics - Afterword
- Index
Nature by Design
Nature by Design
- Chapter:
- (p.195) Eleven Nature by Design
- Source:
- Technology and the Good Life?
- Author(s):
Eric Higgs
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
This chapter shows that as we practice ecological restoration, even wild places like the Canadian Rockies force us to give up modernist assumptions about nature. However, attempting to practice ecological restoration in a postmodern manner, we face the same sort of cultural choice as Borgmann's between “technological restoration” and “focal restoration.” The former practice results in the commodification of nature (e.g., Disney's “Wilderness Lodge”) and the commodification of practice (e.g., when corporations restore nature through landscaping). As an instance of a focal practice, focal restoration requires multifaceted engagement and “the realization of a new kind of relationship with nature, one that enforces humility and respect.” For this focal practice to become viable for many people, more must be done to reform the political economy than Borgmann outlines.
Keywords: ecological restoration, cultural choice, focal restoration, commodification of nature, commodification of practice, focal practice
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- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
-
Part One Philosophy of Technology Today -
One Borgmann's Philosophy of Technology -
Two Philosophy of Technology: Retrospective and Prospective Views -
Part Two Evaluating Focal Things -
Three Focal Things and Focal Practices -
Four Technology and Nostalgia -
Five Focaltechnics, Pragmatechnics, and the Reform of Technology -
Six Borgmann's Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen: On the Prepolitical Conditions of a Politics of Place -
Seven On Character and Technology -
Part Three Theory in the Service of Practice -
Eight The Moving Image: Between Devices and Things -
Nine Farming as Focal Practice -
Ten Design and the Reform of Technology: Venturing Out into the Open -
Eleven Nature by Design -
Part Four Extensions and Controversies -
Twelve Technological Ethics in a Different Voice -
Thirteen Crossing the Postmodern Divide with Borgmann, or Adventures in Cyberspace -
Fourteen Technology and Temporal Ambiguity -
Fifteen Trapped in Consumption: Modern Social Structure and the Entrenchment of the Device -
Sixteen From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads -
Seventeen Philosophy in the Service of Things -
Eighteen Reply to My Critics - Afterword
- Index