Abstract
The word “technology” (Technik) belongs to a group of philosophical words for which a specific character is indicated only by getting a special, typical stamp from a real-life context. Plato gave the first formulation in the history of philosophy — a definition suitable for his time. We can discuss technology in the singular only if we feel that we all mean the same thing, the very same object (technology) — and for that reason use the same definition. If, aware of this situation, we want to take up the theme, “the cultural character of technology,” we must separate our treatment from all those philosophies which pretend to provide the “essence” of technology — whether the definition they offer is metaphysical (Ideas), anthropological (a derivation from “forms of action” — Kapp, Sachsse, and others), sociological, or something similar. This, moreover, is true especially for all cases in which technology is simply spoken of in the singular — usually without describing and differentiating the phenomenon under discussion.
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© 1983 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Diemer, A. (1983). The Cultural Character of Technology. In: Durbin, P.T., Rapp, F. (eds) Philosophy and Technology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 80. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7124-0_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7124-0_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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