An introduction to the metaphysics of technology

Theodore John Rivers

Technology in Society, 2005, vol. 27, issue 4, 551-574

Abstract: This essay offers an explanation of the metaphysics of technology. It analyzes the principal characteristics of technology: rationality, materiality, accumulation, process, and method. Technology is rational and uses a method that is built upon the accumulation of its processes in a material world. As a result, it performs an immediate and pragmatic function. After a brief introduction and an analysis of the thinking of Heidegger and Dessauer, we will discuss how free choice plays a role in technology, since all technologies emanate from one metaphysical ‘principal’: an openness to being, which is the fundamental quality of humanness.

Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:27:y:2005:i:4:p:551-574

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2005.08.009

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