Abstract
La Technique ou L’enjeu du siècle has an unusual history. The original French was published in 1954 and made scarcely a ripple in a cultural world dominated by Jean-Paul Sartre (L’être et le néant, 1943; Saint Genet, comédien et martyr, 1952; Question de méthode, 1957) and Albert Camus (La peste, 1947; La chute, 1956). Although La Technique received ten reviews, most were in periodicals associated with French Protestant intellectual life; only one appeared outside France, in Germany. Somewhat surprisingly, the following decades witnessed translations into Spanish (1960), English (1964), Portuguese (1968), Italian (1969), and Japanese (1975). But most publishing houses were second tier and all non-English translations received little notice.
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Notes
- 1.
For a summary of reviews, see Hanks (2007: 317–320).
- 2.
The issue of how the German Technik and the French technique (even with a lower case t) become the English “technology” is complex. See Schatzberg (2006). In the present context, which is focused simply on a book in English, it is acceptable to by-pass this complexity.
- 3.
This definition, as added in a “Note to the Reader” to the “American edition” of La Technique, reads in English: “The term technique, as I use it, does not mean machines, technology, or this or that procedure for attaining an end. In our technological society, technique is the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity” (Ellul 1964: xxv, italics in the original). Unfortunately there exists no French original of this definition. Simply on the basis of meaning, however, it can be conjectured that the translation “having” in this context is slightly misleading; in light of related discussions it seems reasonable to substitute “obtaining as a result,” “aspiring to,” or “aiming at” (see, e.g., The Technological Society, pp. 11 ff. and pp. 79 ff., and The Technological System, chapter 1, “Technology as a Concept”).
- 4.
Ellul’s tendency to overlook details is well illustrated by this passage which, in the original, incorrectly cites the titles of two of his own books. The bracketed dates have been added.
- 5.
The phrase, which comes from Frederick W. Taylor, is in English in the original. See Kanigel (1997).
- 6.
Interestingly enough, the Ellul-Huxley connection had been suggested in the review of La Technique by Maurice Duverger, “Esope et les techniques,” (Le Monde, 4 November 1954: 7).
- 7.
See, for instance, the dismissive comment about Ellul as a writer of “pessimistic literature about technology” in Mesthene (1970: 22) (Mesthene was director of the Harvard Program.) The review of The Technological Society in Harvard University Program on Technology and Society, Research Review no. 6, “Technology and the Individual” (1970), is more neutral, although the analysis in the text of this research review argues that Ellul’s position is not especially rational.
- 8.
Note, for instance, that standard introductions to philosophy and technology continue twenty years and counting later to find it necessary to mention Ellul if only to dismiss him. See, e.g., Ferré (1988: 12, 108–112, 130, and 141); Ihde (1993: 33–36, 44, 97–98, and 102); Pitt (2000: 87); and Dusek (2006: 27ff).
- 9.
The Center Diary, which began as a six page newsletter and ended up at 72 pages per issue was published once in 1963, four times in 1964, four in 1965, six in 1966, and three in 1967. It was succeeded by the Center Magazine (1967–1987). Virtually every single issue of the Center Diary included mention of Ellul or technology. Among the more prominent examples: Issue no. 10 (January 1966) featured two articles on a 1965 Center symposium on “The Technological Society.” Issue no. 11 (April 1966) reprinted a note by Alfred A. Knopf from The Borzoi Quarterly, vol. 14, issue no. 4, saying that The Technological Society had in its first year sold almost 3,000 copies and that Knopf was now publishing a second Ellul translation, Propaganda (1965). Issue no. 17 featured a long article by John Wilkinson, “Futuribles: Innovation vs. Stability” (pp. 16–24) with extended references to Ellul. The succeeding Center Magazine, which developed a circulation of over 50,000, continued through the early 1970s to reference technology as a major issue.
- 10.
For a remark on the commitment to this conference, see Frank K. Kelly’s institutional history (Kelly 1981: 275).
- 11.
See, for example, Scott Buchanan’s review (Buchanan 1965: 821–823).
- 12.
The special issue of Katallagete was vol. 2 (3–4) published in Winter-Spring 1970. The book: Holloway (1970). Contents: Holloway, “Introduction”; Jacques Ellul, Letter; Holloway, “West of Eden”; Gabriel Vahanian, “Technology, Politics and the Christian Faith”; Christopher Lasch, “The Social Thought of Jacques Ellul”; Julius Lester, “The Revolution: Revisited”; Stephen Rose, “Wither Ethics, Jacques Ellul?”; William Stringfellow, “The American Importance of Jacques Ellul”; James W. Douglass, “On Transcending Technique”; James Branscome, “The Educational Illusion”; and John Wilkinson, “The Divine Persuasion: An Interview on Jacques Ellul.”
- 13.
Jacques Ellul to Rustum Roy, 3 June 1979.
- 14.
Jacques Ellul to Rustum Roy, 15 September 1979.
- 15.
Rustum Roy and Kathy Mourant to Jacques Ellul, Steve Goldman, and Bill Williams, 23 September 1983.
- 16.
Jacques Ellul to Rustum Roy, 30 September 1983.
- 17.
See, e.g., contributions by Latour, Callon, and others in Bijker and Law (1992).
- 18.
For an extended presentation of this period, see Halberstam (1993).
- 19.
See, e.g., Marwick (1998).
- 20.
David Gill, personal communication, 1 June 2011.
- 21.
Langdon Winner, personal communication, 22 May 2011.
- 22.
Bill Vanderburg, 31 May 2011, personal communication.
- 23.
Daniel Cérézuelle, 22 May 2011, personal communication.
- 24.
Note, for instance, the absence of any reference to Ellul in Olsen et al. (2009).
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Acknowledgments
For access to the correspondence between Rustum Roy and Jacques Ellul, I want to acknowledge Della Roy, Kathy Mourant, and Darryl Farber at Pennsylvania State University. Farber deserves further recognition and thanks for numerous conversations about the issues discussed in this article. Some issues were also discussed with Rustum Roy himself before his death in 2010. All translations from Ellul’s French are my own.
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Mitcham, C. (2013). How The Technological Society Became More Important in the United States than in France. In: Jerónimo, H., Garcia, J., Mitcham, C. (eds) Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6658-7_2
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