| dc.description.abstract | It would be just as easy to say what this thesis is not about as it would be to say
what it is about. Indeed, some would venture to say that most of this thesis is not about
technology at all, with a paragraph about keyboards here, a footnote about microchips
there, but rather pages about politics, sociology, anthropology, and so on. I would
respond that it is all a matter of definition, and the definition of technology I am
preferring in this thesis extends well beyond keyboards and microchips into the vastness
of all politics, sociology, anthropology, and further still. This position carries with it a
conclusion that technology, as defined, is among the determinants of individual, cultural,
and social change. Admittedly, determinism in any form is considered unpopular, yet
from the beginning of this process I have been given no sufficient reason to think
otherwise.
This thesis represents my own introduction to the philosophy of technology.
Begun from a mere interest, every stage of research, every book, and every article
provided something entirely new. I have tried to align and condense a small portion of it
for this thesis, so the reader should be aware that many, many important thinkers on
technology have been left out. As a result, this thesis, while still being ambitiously broad
in scope for a treatment of this length, represents but a fraction of the held as whole. At
any rate, it tells a story I believe is worth reading, especially in a momentous
technological age such as ours. | |
