On the reality and value of technology

Autor/innen

  • Tobias Endres Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12795/Argumentos/2023.i26.03

Schlagworte:

Continental Philosophy of Technology, Form and Technology, Ernst Cassirer, Technology as Symbolic Form, Symbolic Forms, Lebensphilosophie, Transcendental Philosophy

Abstract

In this paper I present an interpretation of Ernst Cassirer’s diagnosis that modern culture is in need of an ‘ethicization’ (Ethisierung) of technology. The conclusion of the 1930 essay Form and Technology has not merely met with incomprehension among researchers. From the side of the Frankfurt School, Cassirer, presumably because of this choice of term, even earned ridicule. In its peculiarity, the concept of ethicization was not even attempted to be translated in the latest English translation (2013) of Cassirer’s essay on technology, which is why it can be assumed that it is still not understood, even among experts. I thus present a close reading of Form and Technology that is in line with Cassirer’s system of symbolic forms from his main work and also with relevant posthumous writings. Cassirer’s position turns out as a defense of an autonomy principle that is at the base of any expression of the human mind, including technology. The downside of technology for modern culture lies in its entanglement with science and economy in the historical shape of capitalism. For none of those symbolic forms is essentially normative, philosophy’s task is to reflect on and state those cultural resources that can help to break up this ligation.

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Veröffentlicht

2023-12-31