- 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 <i>Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen:</i> 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
Technological Ethics in a Different Voice
Technological Ethics in a Different Voice
- Chapter:
- (p.219) Twelve Technological Ethics in a Different Voice
- Source:
- Technology and the Good Life?
- Author(s):
Diane P. Michelfelder
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
This chapter appreciates the way focal things may counterbalance devices. It finds that Borgmann's evaluation of the device paradigm does not always bear out for individual devices. Simply because a technological object can be classified as a device does not necessarily mean that it will have the negative effects on engagement and human relationships that Borgmann's theory predicts; some devices actually foster these values, illustrating the chapter's points with a study done on women's use of telephones. “The machinery that clouds the story of a device does not appear to prevent that device from playing a role in relationship building.” If so, devices under some conditions may be more promising than Borgmann thinks; Michelfelder finds that devices can themselves support focal practices if they are used in a context of narrative and tradition.
Keywords: technological ethics, device paradigm, human relationships, relationship building, focal practice, narrative and tradition
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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 <i>Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen:</i> 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
