Editing Technology (section)

== Philosophy ==
{{main|Philosophy of technology}}

Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created."<ref name=":5">{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Franssen |first1=M. |chapter=Philosophy of Technology |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/technology/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |edition=Fall 2018 |access-date=11 September 2022 |last2=Lokhorst |first2=G.-J. |last3=van de Poel |first3=I. |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911061556/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/technology/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since the 1970s.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last1=de Vries |first1=M. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOmPCgAAQBAJ |title=Philosophy of Technology : An Introduction for Technology and Business Students |last2=Verkerk |first2=M. J. |last3=Hoogland |first3=J. |last4=van der Stoep |first4=J. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2015 |isbn=978-1317445715 |location=United Kingdom |oclc=907132694 |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184227/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Philosophy_of_Technology/EOmPCgAAQBAJ |archive-date=4 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The ''humanities philosophy of technology'' is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture".<ref name=":5" />

Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brey |first=P. |year=2000 |editor-last=Mitcham |editor-first=C. |title=Theories of Technology as Extension of Human Faculties |journal=Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Technology. Research in Philosophy and Technology |volume=19 }}</ref> [[Marx]] framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believed that technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture", arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like [[Don Ihde]] and [[Albert Borgmann]] represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology.<ref name=":8" />{{Page needed|date=December 2022}}<!-- citation applies to most of the paragraph -->

Early scholarship on technology was split between two arguments: [[technological determinism]], and [[Social construction of technology|social construction]]. Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Deborah G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iN6MEAAAQBAJ |title=Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future |edition=2nd |last2=Wetmore |first2=Jameson M. |date=2021 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262539968 |access-date=18 October 2022 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429043232/https://books.google.com/books?id=iN6MEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|page=95}} It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dusek |first=Val |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_VXvwEACAAJ |title=Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction |date=2006 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1405111621|access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184807/https://books.google.com/books?id=J_VXvwEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Social constructivists{{who|date=December 2022}} argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of [[sociotechnical system]]s, "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at the value judgments that shape technology.<ref name=":9" />{{Page needed|date=December 2022}}

Cultural critic [[Neil Postman]] distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies", societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Postman |first=Neil |title=Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology |publisher=Vintage |year=1993 |location=New York}}</ref> [[Herbert Marcuse]] and [[John Zerzan]] suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marcuse |first=H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoKGAgAAQBAJ |title=Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume 1 |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134774661|access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184809/https://books.google.com/books?id=WoKGAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>