The Children of Frankenstein: A Primer on Modern Technology and Human Values, Herbert J. Muller

Abstract

HERBERT J. MULLER, Distinguished Service Professor of English and Government in Indiana University, presents in The Children of Frankenstein a history and criticism of culture and technology. Muller is concerned with man and his giving attention primarily to problems arising from those interests which have supported the emergence and extension of civilization as the urban revolution. He recognizes that values are distinctively human and contends that all values have their root in human desire or interest. In Muller's words, Like Spinoza, I assume that people do not desire something because it is good, but that it is considered good because people desire it. (p. 4) There are, accordingly, no false values. But inasmuch as values are distinguishable as ends and means, means may be confused with ends. It is from such confusion that the threat of technology to man's existence (with the abuse of essential human values) arises. The harm of technology, as neglect or even contempt of elementary human values, has been apparent in western culture from the time of the Industrial Revolution and this harm has been accentuated in the succeeding neotechnic and post-industrial phases of modern society.