Xavier Guchet – författare

Since the Enlightenment and the development of industrialization, technology no longer seems to be subject to the guiding principles set by the Greeks: prudence and the search for the right measure in all, which leads to the care of beings and the world. Care in Technology analyzes the historical changes that have led technology to become an unthinkable part of care, and care an unthinkable part of technology. It also establishes the conditions for care to once again become a regulatory principle of the activity of engineers who design technology.

Since the Enlightenment and the development of industrialization, technology no longer seems to be subject to the guiding principles set by the Greeks: prudence and the search for the right measure in all, which leads to the care of beings and the world. Care in Technology analyzes the historical changes that have led technology to become an unthinkable part of care, and care an unthinkable part of technology. It also establishes the conditions for care to once again become a regulatory principle of the activity of engineers who design technology.

Over the past thirty years, the history of technology has been so extensively renewed that many once-canonical narratives have been invalidated.

This collective work takes account of several of these major recompositions: ancient periods were never eras of technical stagnation; techniques are not “diffused”, but interpenetrate and reinvent themselves as they travel; invention is not an individual epiphany, but a gradual and often collective process; far from neutral, the material is endowed with its own agentivity; the notions of capitalism, gender and the environment are fertile contributions to the history of techniques, and have served to invalidate many naiveties.

These recent works have put an end to the discontinuous vision of a history made up of straightforward technical ruptures, in favor of more complex descriptions that provide a better grasp of the real dynamics of today’s world.

Offering an overall insight into the French tradition of philosophy of technology, this volume is meant to make French-speaking contributions more accessible to the international philosophical community. The first section, “Negotiating a Cultural Heritage,” presents a number of leading 20th century philosophical figures (from Bergson and Canguilhem to Simondon, Dagognet or Ellul) and intellectual movements (from Personalism to French Cybernetics and political ecology) that help shape philosophy of technology in the Francophone area, and feed into contemporary debates (ecology of technology, politics of technology, game studies). The second section, “Coining and Reconfiguring Technoscience,” traces the genealogy of this controversial concept and discusses its meanings and relevance. A third section, “Revisiting Anthropological Categories,” focuses on the relationships of technology with the natural and the human worlds from various perspectives that include anthropotechnology, Anthropocene, technological and vital norms and temporalities. The final section, “Innovating in Ethics, Design and Aesthetics,” brings together contributions that draw on various French traditions to afford fresh insights on ethics of technology, philosophy of design, techno-aesthetics and digital studies. The contributions in this volume are vivid and rich in original approaches that can spur exchanges and debates with other philosophical traditions. 

Les nanotechnologies ne désignent pas seulement la miniaturisation des objets techniques, mais plutôt un ensemble d''initiatives de politique scientifique et industrielle à l''échelle mondiale, mêlant des pôles de compétitivité en concurrence, des scénarios du futur et des dispositifs d’engagement des publics en vue de faciliter « l''acceptabilité sociale » des recherches par la prise en compte de leurs « impacts éthiques et sociétaux ». Cet agencement est aujourd''hui le cadre à l’intérieur duquel se fabrique le futur, par la définition de ce qui est désirable et par l’identification des bons leviers d’action. Loin toutefois de se limiter à cette « colonisation » du futur au service des intérêts du moment, les nanotechnologies peuvent être envisagées en temporalité longue, par l''examen des nouveaux modes d''action sur la matière qui s''inventent dans les laboratoires et dont il faut évaluer la portée philosophique.