JTE v2n2 - Book Review- Philosophy of Technology
Volume 2, Number 2
Spring 1991
BOOK REVIEW
Toward a Philosophical Technology Education
FERRE, FREDERICK. (1988). PHILOSOPHY OF
TECHNOLOGY. ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ: PRENTICE
HALL, $17.33 (PAPERBACK), 147 PP. (ISBN
0-13-662586-X)
Reviewed by Carl Mitcham
Technology has increasing impacts on so-
ciety and applications in education. Tech-
nology education, as a distinct area of study
in K-12 schools, is slowly gaining a recog-
nized place in the school curriculum that re-
flects the importance of these impacts. But
what is the application of philosophy to
technology? This brief textbook introduction
to the philosophy of technology in the highly
respected Prentice Hall "Foundations of Phi-
losophy Series" -- concerned, as it is, with
what education in its deepest sense has to
say about technology -- provides an excellent
starting place for addressing this question.
The text opens with an overview of phi-
losophy as "the sustained effort at wondering
critically about . . . comprehensive issues"
(p. 2) applied to technology. What consti-
tutes technological knowledge (as distinct
from, say, scientific knowledge)? What is
the relation between technology and human
values. How are technologically constructed
objects (artifacts) different from natural
objects?
Such questions point readily to a need
to define technology. Chapter two consti-
tutes a stimulating consideration of a number
of key questions related to the concept of
technology. Must technology always be mate-
rial? Is it always science-based? Can ani-
mals have technologies? Is technology
natural or unnatural? Developing a defi-
nition that steers a middle course between
the Scylla of excessive narrowness and the
Charybdis of over generality, Ferre defines
technology as "practical implementations of
intelligence" (p. 26). Building on this de-
finition chapter three goes into greater de-
tail to examine technology as the practical
implementation of practical intelligence
(craft), while chapter four describes that
peculiarly modern form of technology which is
the practical implementation of
theoretical intelligence (science).
The first four chapters of the text thus
deal with definitional and epistemological
issues. The next four turn to questions of
life and the problems of living with technol-
ogy. Chapter five, considering general is-
sues of "technology and modern existence,"
contrasts the "bright visions" of Karl Marx
and Buckminster Fuller with the "somber
visions" of Martin Heidegger and Herbert
Marcuse. Chapter six focuses on the ethical
assessment of technology, mentioning specif-
ically the moral problems that arise in con-
junction with workplace automation,
computers, nuclear
energy, Third World development, and genetic
engineering.
It is unfortunate that questions of edu-
cation and technology are not directly
broached in chapter six, but each of the five
specific areas of ethical concern certainly
has implications for both the utilization of
educational technologies and instruction in
and about technology in the schools. Class-
room automation constitutes a kind of
workplace automation that can be used to de-
skill teachers. Computers can be the basis
for invasions of privacy of and by both
teachers and students. The risks of nuclear
war and nuclear power generation come home in
direct ways to the schools (remember the nu-
clear civil defense drills from the 1950s and
some recent debates about siting schools near
nuclear power plants). Technological devel-
opment and education can raise issues of jus-
tice and equity for minority students as much
as for Third World countries. Genetic engi-
neering has implications for the kinds of
students and teachers -- and, indeed, for the
kind of education -- that will take place in
the future.
The last two chapters consider debates
about the mutual influences between technol-
ogy and religion, and technology and
metaphysics, respectively. The concluding
discussions of technological models of human
nature and free will versus technological
determinism have direct bearing upon the the-
ory and practice of education in the most
general sense, and can provide the founda-
tions for developing guidelines for assessing
the appropriateness of technologies to dif-
ferent educational contexts.
Although the relation between education
and technology is never directly addressed,
this book provides reflective background for
the informed development of a philosophy of
technology education. This in turn can help
us move from the technological transformation
of education toward the educational transfor-
mation of technology.
----------------
Carl Mitcham is Associate Professor, Science,
Technology, and Society Program, The
Pennsylvania State University, University
Park, Pennsylvania.
Permission is given to copy any
article or graphic provided credit is given and
the copies are not intended for sale.
Journal of Technology Education Volume 2, Number 2 Spring 1991