Technology and Values: Essential Readings

This anthology features essays and book excerpts on technology and values written by preeminent figures in the field from the early 20th century to the present. It offers an in-depth range of readings on important applied issues in technology as well. Useful in addressing questions on philosophy, sociology, and theory of technology Includes wide-ranging coverage on metaphysics, ethics, and politics, as well as issues relating to gender, biotechnology, everyday artifacts, and architecture A good supplemental text for courses on moral or political problems in which contemporary technology is a unit of focus An accessible and thought-provoking book for beginning and advanced undergraduates; yet also a helpful resource for graduate students and academics

Table of Contents:
List of Figures xi Acknowledgments xii Source Acknowledgments xiii General Introduction 1 Craig Hanks Section One Theoretical Reflections on Technology 7 Part I Introductory Considerations of Technology 9 1 Toward a Philosophy of Technology 11 Hans Jonas 2 Four Philosophies of Technology 26 Alan R. Drengson 3 The Relation of Science and Technology to Human Values 38 William W. Lowrance 4 A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans 49 Bruno Latour 5 Technology and Ethics 60 Kristin Shrader-Frechette Part II Considering the Autonomy of Technology 65 6 The Autonomy of Technology 67 Jacques Ellul 7 Artifice and Order 76 Langdon Winner 8 The Autonomy of Technology 87 Joseph Pitt Part III Existential and Phenomenological Considerations 97 9 The Question Concerning Technology 99 Martin Heidegger 10 Man the Technician 114 José Ortega y Gasset 11 Focal Things and Practices 122 Albert Borgmann 12 A Phenomenology of Technics 134 Don Ihde Part IV Critical Theory 157 13 The New Forms of Control 159 Herbert Marcuse 14 Technical Progress and the Social Life-World 169 Jürgen Habermas 15 The Critical Theory of Technology 176 Andrew Feenberg Part V Pragmatic Considerations 197 16 Science and Society 199 John Dewey 17 Technology and Community Life 206 Larry Hickman Part VI Feminist Considerations 223 18 A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century 225 Donna Haraway 19 Technological Ethics in a Different Voice 247 Diane P. Michelfelder Section Two Applied Reflections on Technology and Value 259 Part VII Technology and Value in Everyday Life 261 Introduction 263 20 The Aesthetic Drama of the Ordinary 265 John McDermott 21 Domestic Technology: Labour-saving or Enslaving? 272 Judy Wajcman 22 Some Meanings of Automobiles 289 Douglas Browning Part VIII Values and BioTechnologies 295 Introduction 297 23 How Splendid Technologies Can Go Wrong 299 Daniel Callahan 24 Genetics and Reproductive Risk: Can Having Children be Immoral? 304 Laura M. Purdy 25 Preventing a Brave New World 311 Leon Kass 26 Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research: Embryos and Beyond 323 Inmaculada de Melo-Martín and Marin Gillis 27 Food for Thought 335 Nina V. Federoff and Nancy Marie Brown 28 Value Judgments and Risk Comparisons. The Case of Genetically Engineered Crops 347 Paul B. Thompson Part IX Urban Values 357 Introduction 359 29 The Highway and the City 361 Lewis Mumford 30 Designing Cities and Buildings as if They Were Ethical Choices 369 Jessica Woolliams 31 The Local History of Space 373 Steven Moore 32 Community 385 Joseph Grange 33 Urban Ecological Citizenship 397 Andrew Light Part X Environmental Values 413 Introduction 415 34 Why Mow? 417 Michael Pollan 35 Technology 423 Lori Gruen 36 Environment, Technology, and Ethics 431 Rajni Kothari 37 The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic 438 J. Baird Callicott 38 Deep Ecology 454 Bill Devall and George Sessions 39 Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique 460 Ramachandra Guha 40 Just Garbage 468 Peter S. Wenz Part XI Immediate Challenges: Information Technologies, Technological Systems and the Future of Human Values 477 Introduction 479 41 Philosophy of Information Technology 481 Carl Mitcham 42 Into the Electronic Millennium 491 Sven Birkerts 43 Why I Am not Going to Buy a Computer 500 Wendell Berry 44 In the Age of the Smart Machine 504 Shoshana Zuboff 45 The Social Life of Information 510 John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid 46 The Quest for Universal Usability 522 Ben Shneiderman Bibliography 531

About the Author :
Craig Hanks is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University-San Marcos, where he is past-chair of the Institutional Review Board. He was previously at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and was Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He specializes in philosophy of technology and applied philosophy, and has taught courses on engineering ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and philosophy of technology. He is author of Refiguring Critical Theory (2002) and editor of Inner Space/Outer Space: The Humanities, Technology and the Postmodern World (1993); his monograph, Technological Musings: Reflections on Technology and Values, is forthcoming.

Review :
“Overall, Technology and Values represents an excellent collection of readings, ranging from classical yet ever timely readings on the nature of technology itself, to cutting edge articles on recent technological developments in the applied sphere. Due to its unique broad and comprehensive coverage of the subject matter, coupled with its comprehensive bibliography, this book is an excellent tool for both graduate and undergraduate courses.”  (Agric Hum Values, 2011) "For its size and scope this collection docs a remarkable job of addressing a critical need for greater scholarly and public attention to questions of technology and values in contemporary culture. It is a rich and versatile resource for anyone interested in such questions, and this reviewer hopes that future editions will only improve on its virtues." (Technology and Culture, April 2010)