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2020/2021

Philosophy of Technology

Code: 100317 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500246 Philosophy OT 3 0
2500246 Philosophy OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Jaume Sastre Juan
Email:
Jaume.Sastre@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Other comments on languages

The students should be able to read academic texts in English, since a good part of the bibliography is in this language.

Prerequisites

There are none.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The goal of this subject is to provide tools in order to think critically about technology, and to put them in practice through the situated analysis of specific artefacts and technological systems.

Smartphones, razor-wire, surveillance cameras, ventilators, computers, cruise ships, containers, biometric passports, diggers, electricity networks, transgenic food, high-speed trains, sewing machines, condoms, drones, rubber bullets, nuclear power stations, pliers...

How to think philosophically about the material constitution of the worlds we inhabit? How does technology embody social relations, ideas and values? How does it materialize power relations? What role does technology play in the construction of bodies, feelings, identidies, and subjectivities? What ethical, political, ecological and ontological issues are at stake?

The tool-box that will be deployed and put into use during the course contains conceptual instruments, empirical materials and analytical techniques that come from different places. The reflections about technology from the philosophical tradition will be combined with perspectives from disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology or the social studies of science and technology, as well as other engaged analyses and practices coming from outside academia.

Competences

    Philosophy
  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
  • Using the symbology and procedures of the formal sciences in the analysis and building of arguments.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing and summarising information.
  2. Analysing historical cases about scientific facts.
  3. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  4. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  5. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  6. Correctly, accurately and clearly communicating the acquired philosophical knowledge in oral and written form.
  7. Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
  8. Developing self-learning strategies.
  9. Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
  10. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  11. Engaging in debates about philosophical issues respecting the other participants' opinions.
  12. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  13. Explaining aspects of the history of science by using the discipline's specific terminology.
  14. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
  15. Formulating arguments for and against an issue, using proper vocabulary, conceptual precision and argumentative coherence.
  16. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  17. Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
  18. Leading working groups, overseeing collective tasks and working with commitment in order to bring together various positions.
  19. Mastering the relevant languages to the necessary degree in the professional practice.
  20. Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
  21. Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  22. Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
  23. Recognising and implementing the following teamwork skills: commitment to teamwork, habit of cooperation, ability to participate in the problem solving processes.
  24. Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  25. Reflecting on their own work and the immediate environment's in order to continuously improve it.
  26. Regularising arguments of any source and calculating its logical correctness.
  27. Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
  28. Solving problems autonomously.
  29. Using computing tools, both basics (word processor or databases, for example) and specialised software needed in the professional practice of archaeology.
  30. Using specialized knowledge acquired in an interdisciplinary context when debating.
  31. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

1. What is technology? Critical genealogy of a concept

2. Tools, Artefacts and Systems: On the Modes of Existence of Technical Objects

3. Design: The Social Shaping of Technology

4. Tecnopolitics: Materiality, Power and Forms of Life

5. Interactions: Agency, Delegation and Situated Actions

6. Subjectivation: Rituals, Emotions, Identities

7. Intersections: Gender, Coloniality, Racialization

8. Nature: Biotechnology, Eco-Modernism, Political Ecology

9. Myths: Solutionism, Transhumanism, Anarcho-capitalism

10. Catastrophes: Toxicities, Nuclearization, Anthropocene

11. Control: Cybernetics, Big Data and Governmentality

12. Technocracy? Sovereignity, Autonomy, Conviviality

Methodology

The subject combines theoretical classes with discussion seminars around selected readings. Each week will have a theoretical session and a seminar. Therefore, it is expected from students a serious engagement with readings and an active participation in the collective discussion.

Eath topic will deal with one or several philosophical, historical, anthropological or sociological perspectives about technology, that will always be discussed in relation to specific and situated tools, artefacts or techical systems. Further bibliographical references for each of the topics will be published in the campus virtual.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theoretical classes 23 0.92 2, 1, 27, 30, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 11, 24
Type: Supervised      
Discussion Seminars 22 0.88 2, 1, 6, 27, 30, 7, 9, 10, 19, 12, 13, 14, 5, 4, 15, 16, 18, 22, 11, 23, 24, 25
Supervision 3 0.12 3, 8, 21, 20, 28
Type: Autonomous      
Reading and autonomous work 48 1.92 2, 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 21, 12, 17, 22, 20, 24, 25, 28

Assessment

The assessment will consist in:

A) A final essay (50%), the topic of which will be chosen by the student and agreed with the professor. The format of the final essay will be announced at the beginning of the course.

B) Two written assignments (15% + 15%) agreed with the professor and framed within the research process of the final essay. The format of these assignments will be announced at the beginning of the course.

C) The active participation in the discussion seminars (20%). This activity cannot be reassessed.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

All assessment activities will have the opportunity to be revised, either presentially or virtually.

To pass the subject through continuous assessment, an average minimum of 5 is required.

The student will be given the grade of “non-assessable” if less than 20% of the assessment activities are submitted.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity,
regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

Reassessment:

For their admission to reassessment, students must have been previously assessed from a set of activities that are equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the whole qualification. The minimum average grade of the assessed activities cannot be inferior to 3 nor higher than 5.

The 20% assigned to the active participation in the discussion seminars, as well as the assessment activities in which irregularities have been committed, cannot be re-assessed.

Re-assessment will consist in submitting again the assessment activities in which the student failed. The format will be announced with enough anticipation.

Any change related to assessment, methodology, etc., will appear at the Virtual Campus in due course.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Active participation at the discussion seminars 20% 8 0.32 2, 1, 6, 27, 7, 9, 10, 19, 12, 13, 14, 5, 4, 15, 17, 18, 11, 23, 25
Final Essay 50% 40 1.6 2, 1, 3, 6, 27, 30, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 21, 12, 13, 14, 5, 31, 15, 17, 16, 22, 20, 24, 28, 29
Written assignment (1) 15% 3 0.12 2, 1, 3, 6, 27, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 12, 13, 14, 5, 31, 26, 15, 17, 16, 22, 24
Written assignment (2) 15% 3 0.12 2, 1, 3, 6, 27, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 12, 13, 14, 5, 31, 15, 17, 16, 22, 24

Bibliography

Anders, Günther (2011 [1956]) La obsolescencia del hombre: Sobre el alma en la época de la segunda revolución industrial. Valencia: Pre-Textos.

Akrich, Madeleine (1992). “The De-Scription of Technical Objects”. In: Bijker, Wiebe; Law, John (eds.), Shaping Technology/Building Society. Cambridge: MIT Press, 205-224.

Benjamin, Ruha (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bonneuil, Christophe; Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste (2015). The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History, and Us. London: Verso.

Borgmann, Albert (1984). Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: An Inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Collins, Harry; Kusch, Martin (1998). The Shape of Actions: What Humans and Machines can Do. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Dusek, Val (2006). Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction. Malden: Willey-Blackwell.

Edgerton, David (2006). The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. London: Profile Books.

Feenberg, Andrew (1999). Questioning Technology. New York: Routledge.

Fisch, Michael (2018). An Anthropology of the Machine: Tokyo’s Commuter Train Network. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Friis, Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen et al. (eds.) (2013). A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

Grupo Marcuse (2019). La libertad en coma: Contra la informatización del mundo. Ediciones el Salmón.

Haraway, Donna (1991 [1983]). “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”. In: Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 149-182.

Haraway, Donna (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chtulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ilich, Ivan (2012 [1973]). La convivencialidad. Barcelona: Virus.

Ippolita (2016). Anime elettriche: riti e miti sociali. Milano: Jaca Books.

Latour, Bruno (1996 [1993]). Aramis, or the Love of Technology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Law, John (ed.) (1991). A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London and New York: Routledge.

MacKenzie, Donald; Wajcman, Judy (eds.) (1999). The Social Shaping of Technology (2nd edition). Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Masco, Joseph (2006). Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Cold War New Mexico. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mitcham, Carl (1994). Thinking through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mumford, Lewis (2016 [1967-1970]). El mito de la máquina (2 vols.). Logroño: Pepitas de Calabaza.

Ortega y Gasset, José (2014 [1933]). Ensimismamiento y alteración. Meditación de la técnica y otros ensayos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Scharff, Robert; Dusek, Val (eds.) (2014). Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition (2nd edition). An Anthology. Malden: Willey-Blackwell.

Schatzberg, Eric (2018) Technology: Critical History of a Concept. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Simondon, Gilbert (2018 [1958]). El modo de existencia de los objetos técnicos. Buenos Aires: Prometeo.

Stiegler, Bernard (2003 [1996]). La técnica y el tiempo (3 vols.). Hondarribia: Hiru.

Suchman, Lucy (2006). Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trocchi, Agnese (2019). Internet, mon amour: Cronache prima del crollo di ieri. C.I.R.C.E. [https://ima.circex.org/]

Winner, Langdon (1986). The Whale and theReactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High-Technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.