Andrew Feenberg – författare

A leading philosopher of technology calls for the democratic coordination of technical rationality with everyday experience.

The technologies, markets, and administrations of today''s knowledge society are in crisis. We face recurring disasters in every domain: climate change, energy shortages, economic meltdown. The system is broken, despite everything the technocrats claim to know about science, technology, and economics. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that today powerful technologies have unforeseen effects that disrupt everyday life; the new masters of technology are not restrained by the lessons of experience, and accelerate change to the point where society is in constant turmoil. In Between Reason and Experience, leading philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg makes a case for the interdependence of reason—scientific knowledge, technical rationality—and experience. Feenberg examines different aspects of the tangled relationship between technology and society from the perspective of critical theory of technology, an approach he has pioneered over the past twenty years. Feenberg points to two examples of democratic interventions into technology: the Internet (in which user initiative has influenced design) and the environmental movement (in which science coordinates with protest and policy). He examines methodological applications of critical theory of technology to the case of the French Minitel computing network and to the relationship between national culture and technology in Japan. Finally, Feenberg considers the philosophies of technology of Heidegger, Habermas, Latour, and Marcuse. The gradual extension of democracy into the technical sphere, Feenberg argues, is one of the great political transformations of our time.

In this extraordinary introduction to the study of the philosophy of technology, Andrew Feenberg argues that techonological design is central to the social and political structure of modern societies. Environmentalism, information technology, and medical advances testify to technology''s crucial importance.In his lucid and engaging style, Feenberg shows that technology is the medium of daily life. Every major technical changes reverberates at countless levels: economic, political, and cultural. If we continue to see the social and technical domains as being seperate, then we are essentially denying an integral part of our existence, and our place in a democratic society.Questioning Tecchnology convinces us that it is vital that we learn more about technology the better to live with it and to manage it.

In this extraordinary introduction to the study of the philosophy of technology, Andrew Feenberg argues that techonological design is central to the social and political structure of modern societies. Environmentalism, information technology, and medical advances testify to technology''s crucial importance.In his lucid and engaging style, Feenberg shows that technology is the medium of daily life. Every major technical changes reverberates at countless levels: economic, political, and cultural. If we continue to see the social and technical domains as being seperate, then we are essentially denying an integral part of our existence, and our place in a democratic society.Questioning Tecchnology convinces us that it is vital that we learn more about technology the better to live with it and to manage it.

First published in 2005. Herbert Marcuse was Martin Heidegger’s most famous student. He claimed to have left existentialism behind in 1933 when Heidegger was declared first Nazi rector of Freiburg University and Marcuse fled into exile.The contentious relations between these two thinkers reflected the split in twentieth-century continental philosophy between exist- entialism and Marxism. But Andrew Feenberg’s careful study of Heidegger’s early lectures, as well as of previously unpublished work by Marcuse, suggests that the famous student remained closer than he cared to admit to the even more famous teacher. Heidegger and Marcuse examines for the first time Marcuse’s remarkable attemptsin his early and late work to bridge the gap between existentialism and Marxism in a radical critical theory.

First published in 2005. Herbert Marcuse was Martin Heidegger’s most famous student. He claimed to have left existentialism behind in 1933 when Heidegger was declared first Nazi rector of Freiburg University and Marcuse fled into exile.The contentious relations between these two thinkers reflected the split in twentieth-century continental philosophy between exist- entialism and Marxism. But Andrew Feenberg’s careful study of Heidegger’s early lectures, as well as of previously unpublished work by Marcuse, suggests that the famous student remained closer than he cared to admit to the even more famous teacher. Heidegger and Marcuse examines for the first time Marcuse’s remarkable attemptsin his early and late work to bridge the gap between existentialism and Marxism in a radical critical theory.