A Study of Anders’ Three Crises: From Machines to Human Shame

Abstract

This article aims at showing how the philosopher G. Anders develops his ontology of technology as described in his <i>Outdatedness of Mankind vol. I </i>and <I>II</I>. I argue that Anders’ three crises are a fundamental interpretative key for understanding his philosophy of technology as well as his negative anthropology which should be inscribed within his idiosyncratic approach of a critical theory of technology. The article is structured in the following manner: first, an introduction which presents a super-structure in which become possible to collocate Anders’ discussion on crisis and shame. Second, there will be a discussion on the role played by the machine in the Andersian philosophy of technology. Third, there will be an analysis on the mechanism through which radio and television alter the traditional anthropomorphic notion of ‘experience’ through the creation of phantoms and matrices constituting the crisis of needs. Fourth, there will be an exemplification of the consequences of humanity’s progressive detachment from the awareness of its <i>praxis </i>through the Andersian notion of ‘Promethean Gap’. Fifth, the conclusion will summarise the main results of this article depicting what Anders describes as the pathological status of humanity in the age of the machines, that is, humanity’s shame before its own products.