Portuguese Philosophy Of Technology: Legacies And Contemporary Work From The Portuguese-Speaking Community

Description

This volume is a collection of essays of a philosophical nature on the subject of technology, introducing authors from the Portuguese-speaking community, namely from Portugal itself, Africa and Brazil. Their contributions detail a unique perspective on technology, placing this important topic within the historical, ideological and social contexts of their countries, all of which share a common language. The shared history of these countries and the cultural and economic specificities of each one have stimulated singular insights into these thinkers’ reflections. The essays are thematically diverse. Among the topics covered are technogenic knowledge, visions of technology, risks and uncertainties, mediatization, digitalization, and datafication, engineering practice and ethics, alternative technoscientific strategies, ontotechnologies of the body, virtual and archive. The contributions also explore other themes that are more closely related to the semi-peripheral world, such as technological dependence and the incorporation of Western technology into the social structure of ancestral communities. This book appeals to students and researchers and provides a voice to authors whose work are not usually available in English-language publications. It serves as an ideal guide for all those who seek rigorous and geographically widespread knowledge regarding thinking on technology in several Portuguese-speaking countries. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Pathways in the Philosophy of Technology in the Portuguese-Speaking Community References Part I: Modern Technology and Aporias of Progress Chapter 2: António Sérgio: Critical Rationalism and Technology 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A Philosophy that Advocates Experientialism 2.3 Democracy and Technical Expertise 2.4 A Dialogical and Personalistic Neo-Kantian Ethics 2.5 Mankind and the Machine in the Time of Industry and the First World War 2.6 Cooperativism and the Age of Abundance 2.7 A Humanistic and Unitary View of Development 2.8 Conclusion References Sérgio, A. (1915). A opinião pública americana perante a Guerra. A Águia, 2ª série, vol. 7, 46−48. Other References Chapter 3: The God of Artefacts: Vico’s Principle and Technology 3.1 Vico’s Principle 3.2 Vico’s Principle After Vico in Sociological Thought 3.2.1 Sorel and “Artificial Nature” 3.2.2 Bachelard and the Principle of Sufficient Construction 3.2.3 Dewey: A Promethean 3.3 The Limits of Vico’s Principle in Technology: Brief Considerations on the Epistemology and Ontology of Technology 3.4 Ultra-Technology References Chapter 4: Technique, Readiness-to-Hand and Development 4.1 The Concept of Readiness-to-Hand: The World as Given and the World as Made 4.2 Industrialization and Knowledge of the World 4.3 Overcoming Underdevelopment by the Accumulation of Work 4.4 The Philosophy of Technique: The Inertia of Technique, and Technique as Invention Chapter 5: Three Essays on Technique, the Artificial and the New Human 5.1 The Living and the Artificial 5.2 Towards the New Man 5.3 Technique as Argument Chapter 6: Technology and the Lifeworld in Miguel Baptista Pereira 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Biographical Notes and Main Works 6.3 Aspects of Technology in Miguel Baptista Pereira’s Thought 6.4 Final Notes References Miguel Baptista Pereira’s Essays Other References Chapter 7: Amílcar Cabral: Agriculture, Technology and Colonialism 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Power of the Rains and Soil Erosion 7.3 Property Rights and Soil Erosion: The Agrarian Problem in a Centre-South Region of Portugal 7.4 Western Power and Black African Tradition: The Adverse Impact on Soil Erosion of the Peanut Crop and Mechanization 7.5 Agriculture in the Politician’s Discourse 7.6 Conclusion References Amílcar Cabral’s Works Other References Part II: Technology, Risk and Values Chapter 8: Riscophrenia: The Risk Fallacy and the Repression of Uncertainty 8.1 Introduction 8.2 From Uncertainty to Risk (and Back Again) 8.3 Measurement as Abracadabra and Calculating Reason 8.4 Ambiguity in the Imaginary of Risk: “Moral Relief” and “Statistical Panic” 8.5 Concluding Remarks References Chapter 9: Four Visions of Technology 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The Instrumental, Metaphysical, Systemic and Socio-critical Visions of Technology 9.3 Conclusion References Chapter 10: The Specificity of Technological Knowledge 10.1 A Particular Mode of Knowledge 10.2 Not Merely Applied Science 10.3 Technological and Scientific Knowledge 10.4 Conclusion References Chapter 11: Lost in Translation? Ethics and Engineering Practice 11.1 Introduction 11.2 The Birth of Modern Engineering 11.3 Engineering Practice as Translation 11.4 The Limits of Engineering Ethics 11.5 The Pleasure of Translation References Chapter 12: Critique of Western Technological Hegemony and Neo-Animism in Ruy Duarte de Carvalho 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Agronomist to Poet, Director, Anthropologist, Writer: Aspects of a Singular Angolan Trajectory 12.3 Western Expansion and Westernizing Obstinacy 12.4 Caught in the Net of the Other’s Game 12.5 The Neo-Animist Programme References Ruy Duarte de Carvalho’s Essays and Novels Other References Part III: Technoscene and Postmodern World Chapter 13: Mediatization: From Gutenberg to Unlimited Media and Datafication 13.1 Introduction 13.2 The Birth of Mass Communication and Print Capitalism 13.2.1 Mechanical Reproduction and the Printed Book as the First Modern Media 13.2.2 Print Media: The Ideal of a Public Liberal Sphere and Its Structural Transformation 13.2.3 Transmission and Distribution in Space, Advent of Electrification and Communication Empires 13.2.4 The Substantive Meaning of Communication 13.3 The Instrumentalization of Mass Communication 13.3.1 Propaganda and Mass Manipulation in the World Wars 13.3.2 Critique and Legitimization of Propaganda 13.3.3 Mass Manipulation, Political Campaigns, and Consumerism 13.3.4 The Formal-Instrumental Meaning of Communication 13.4 Computers, Networks, Digitalization and Datafication 13.5 Conclusion References Chapter 14: The Virtualization of the Archive 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Memory 14.3 Technique 14.4 Conclusion References Chapter 15: Law-Technology Lag or Law as Technology in the Big Data Age 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Big Data and the Data Protection Reform in the European Union 15.3 The Turn to the Risk-Based Approach to Data Protection: A Triumph of Pragmatism Over Principle 15.4 Law-Technology Lag or “Law as Technology”? Deconstructing the Rationale of the Data Protection Reform 15.5 Conclusion References Official Documents Chapter 16: Ontotechnologies of the Body: Technoperformativity and Processes of Subjectivation 16.1 Dispositif and Uses of the Body 16.2 Technoperformativity and Processes of Subjectivation References Chapter 17: Solidary Technoscience: A Concept for the Philosophy of Technology 17.1 Introduction 17.2 Science, Technology, Knowledge for the Production of Goods and Services, and Technoscience 17.3 An Analytical-Conceptual Framework for Solidary Technoscience Based on the Contribution of the Philosophy of Technology 17.4 Formulating a Generic Concept of Technoscience 17.5 The Concept of Solidary Technoscience 17.6 Final Considerations References Chapter 18: Commercially-Oriented Technoscience and the Need for Multi-Strategic Research 18.1 Introduction 18.2 The Model of the Interactions Between Scientific Activities and Values 18.2.1 Moments of Scientific Activities 18.2.2 The Conception of Scientific Research Incorporated into the Model of the Interactions 18.2.3 Decontextualizing Strategies 18.2.4 Decontextualizing Strategies, Context-Sensitive Strategies and the Ideal of Comprehensiveness 18.2.5 Strategic Pluralism 18.3 Incoherence of the Self-Understanding of the Modern Scientific Tradition, and Options for Gaining a Coherent Interpretation that Maintains Continuity with the Positive Realizations of the Tradition 18.3.1 Viable Coherent Interpretations of Scientific Research 18.3.1.1 Commercially-Oriented Technoscience (CT) 18.3.1.2 Multi-Strategic Research (MSR) 18.3.1.3 Comparing Commercially-Oriented Technoscience and Multi-Strategic Research 18.3.2 The Importance of Multi-Strategic Research 18.3.2.1 The Positive Research Program of Multi-Strategic Research 18.3.2.2 The Critical Stance of Multi-Strategic Research Towards Commercially-Oriented Technoscience References