Technological Civilization Research Articles

A Philosophical Analysis of the Challenges of Science and Technology in Contemporary Africa: The Nigerian Experiment

Science and technology engendered unexpected social, political and health related problems. These included corrupt and dubious utilization of information and communication technology, environmental pollution and protection and depletion of the ozone layer which endangered human health. This sstudy examined the positive and negative implications of science and technology in Africa using Nigeria as a case study. This attempt became germane owing to the important place of the scientific and technological enterprise in the entire pattern of human life. The critical and conceptual methods of analysis were employed and the available literatures on the problem provided the background for the study. The study showed the dangers in uncontrolled destructive character of scientific and technological knowledge to human survival and suggested appropriate control measures. The study, therefore, suggested resource control, the control of chemical and biological weapons and the abuse of information and communication technology. Manufacturers of various technologies needed to create subsidiary technology and put in place necessary mechanisms for curtailing the foreseeable consequences of their products. Indeed, technological civilization should not be blindly embraced.

Lecture écologiste de la lettre D’Epicure à Ménécée: actualité d’un texte grec ancien pour penser la relation de l’humanité à la nature

Há três motivos para reler hoje o texto grego antigo de Epicuro: nossa civilização é a da crise dasciências européias, o niilismo da cultura pós-moderna e da Razão bárbara...Filosofar no atual século éinterrogar a «questão natural» dominante e propor uma ética para nossa civilização tecnológica; quaissão os pressupostos e as implicações da pesquisa ligada ao desenvolvimento tecno-científico? Epicuro,no século IV a.C., em sua carta a seu amigo Menecéias, o aconselha de seguir algumas regras para vivercom prazer. Estas são as de um tipo-ideal ecológico que permitem de bem viver com a terra habitada pornós. Uma releitura nostálgico-utópica de um texto de filosofia epicúrea.

A Study on the Formative Characteristics of Costumes in Dystopian Films

Since modem times, civilization of scientific technology has rapidly expanded and resulted in many negative aspects. Dystopia is a skeptical future standpoint newly introduced by surging awareness of these negative aspects. The purpose of this study is to discover the common characteristics by studying costumes displayed in dystopian films which have critical view of the future. This study is made through the research of sundry records, thesis and capture images from DVD system. As a result of the study, the common formative characteristics of future costumes appearing in six dystopian films are classified into external characteristics and internal characteristics. First, external characteristics were analyzed according to the form, material and color. Second, internal characteristics of costumes appearing in dystopian films are categorized as the indeterminate expression, ex-typical expression and uniform expression. The above formative characteristics of dystopian future costumes can be described as the embodiment of meanings of influence from present and future cultural changes in terms of the characteristics of fashion.

Is Life Necessary?

The biodiversity found in our biosphere is immense and still not fully identified. Given the likely millions of species of microorganisms and other unidentified eukaryotic species, we can conclude there is still a significant paucity of knowledge on the total biodiversity of our common biosphere. However, none of these diverse live forms are necessary. To the best of my knowledge, life is not necessary anywhere in the universe. The origin of life was not necessary, evolution and diversification of life was not necessary and humans are not necessary in the universe. In fact, the universe can carry on expanding and maybe even collapse at some time, all in the absence of any life forms. Our presence in the universe may therefore seems rather unimportant and insignificant. From a philosophical and scientific perspective this may be an accurate assessment, even though we do not know our future destiny and the life span of our emerging technological civilization. Some may disagree with me from a religious perspective. On a more practical level, humans do think they are necessary in the universe. We want to enjoy our lives, our loved ones, relatives and friends. And most people I know certainly want to better humanity on a global scale. As humans we are faced with the realization that the universe can exist without us, but our minds/consciousness and humanity tells us that we value the sanctity of life and our common biosphere on the Earth. Let us seek global solutions to infectious diseases and pollution that are so devastating to life. We can turn our focus to the health and well-being of life forms in our biosphere as it is all we have at this time in our civilization. Water Air Soil Pollut (2010) 205 (Suppl 1):S3 DOI 10.1007/s11270-006-9292-x

How Long can a Technological Civilization Survive?

Technological civilizations are a relatively new invention, and consequently, we do not know their life spans. Such a civilization uses nature for their basic needs, but it invents advanced technologies for innumerable purposes. These technologies allow improvements to ancient activities such as building, agriculture, forestry and mining, now conducted using more efficient, but also more polluting methods. Recent developments dealing with manufacturing, transportation, the generation of energy and energy usage have also become increasingly dependent on technology. Finally, technology has allowed totally new approaches to disciplines such as computing, healthcare, commerce and warfare. With the development of these technologies often comes the wishful thinking that our problems and challenges can be solved through the use of the existing and novel technologies. This optimism in part results because some people do not understand the limitations of scientific and technological fixes. Moreover, they do not recognize the fact that each new technology creates new problems that are often unrecognizable for years or even decades after their advent. The excessive and growing human population, accompanied by global climate change and depletion of renewable resources, represent primary problems. It is possible that the solutions to these problems can be facilitated by technological advances, but technological fixes are often limited, for example, by the costs of the technologies. The risks involved, who owns a technology and how it will be used are considered by only a few insightful individuals whose opinions are often neglected by a misleadingly optimistic public that trusts science and technology to solve its problems. Modern methods of birth control have the potential to avert the current population crisis. Moreover, the cost is not prohibitive; effective worldwide birth control and abortion services have been estimated to cost no more than 40 billion dollars per year. However, technology alone never solves problems; solutions first require proper values and attitudes, and then they depend on an adequate investment of time, effort and money. Before the resolution of any other problems can be beneficial in the long run, the problem of our population must be solved. Our civilization has been using advanced technologies for only about 100 years. We have collided with the dimension of time whereupon nature depends. We have killed a major fraction of the ocean’s coral reefs and depleted fish stocks to a small fraction of preexploitation levels. Even without further destruction, it takes centuries to restore conditions. Deforestation, erosion, soil and nutrient depletion have destroyed much of our forests and natural terrestrial habitats, blocking regenerating. We have sadly depleted our Water Air Soil Pollut (2008) 195:1–2 DOI 10.1007/s11270-006-9244-5

Matter and psyche: Lewis Mumford's appropriation of Marx and Jung in his appraisal of the condition of man in technological civilization

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the breadth and importance of Mumford's philosophical outlook by exploring his critical appropriation of the theories of Marx and Jung which he employed to create a penetrating, visionary collection of works that offer us a powerful and timely insight into the ills besetting our current technological civilization. Mumford partially accepted Marx's matter–psyche dynamic but expanded it to include architecture, technology and urban planning. He surpassed the one-way process of Marxist historical-economic teleology to form a conception of historical process based upon a dialectic interaction between mind and material conditions. He constructed a Jungian model of mind and explored its formative effect on material conditions. At the same time he criticized Jung's failure to engage with the external world, namely with those material conditions in urgent need of transformation. Like Jung he was concerned by the exclusion of religion from the modern scientific idolum, the dominant ideological presence, yet unlike Jung he extended his analysis further, considering not only the effect of religion on the individual but also its effect on the community. His theory of the dialectic interaction of material conditions and psyche is partly drawn from these two thinkers but transcends both by refusing to commit wholly to either. His incorporation, modification and rejection of elements of both Marx and Jung contributed more significantly than has so far been noted to his own critique of the present civilization and vision for the future. This vision involved a deeper awareness of the human personality, liberation from automatism and increased sensitivity to others and the natural world. This, according to the Mumfordian project, would be inexorably followed by a gradual withdrawal from the consumerism of the current technological civilization, the construction of a more personal and organic ideology and the subsequent regeneration of material conditions to nurture human nature. I therefore argue that it is essential to our understanding of Lewis Mumford that we witness his critical engagement with Marx and Jung and see the ways in which they inform and inspire this project.

New Horizons of Chemistry: Single Molecules

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract, please click on HTML or PDF.

Liberalism, Nihilism and Modernity in the Political Thought of John Gray

This analysis of John Gray’s political thought explores the tension between his early commitment to a ‘modus vivendi’ model of civil association and his more recent commitment to communitarianism, on the one hand, and attempts to combat what he considers to be the nihilism latent in modern technological civilization, on the other. It concludes that although Gray has found no way of resolving this tension, the more enduring interest of his work lies at a deeper level, in his attempt to identify the conditions for what may be termed a ‘philosophy of modesty’ which is diametrically opposed to the western dream of becoming masters of the universe.

Understanding the cultural landscape

Introduction. Part 1: Anthropological Foundations. Human Evolution, Diffusion, and Culture. Foragers. Domestication. The Diffusion and Early Development of Agriculture. The Emergence of Civilization. Part 2: Historical Developments. China. India. A Technological Civilization. Globalization. Part 3: Livelihoods Today. Resource Production. Manufacturing. Services. Transportation and Communication. Part 4: Social and Environmental Consequences. Romantic Responses. Political Reactions. Conservation, Resources, and Population. Pollution, Biodiversity, and Climate Change. Part 5: Reading Landscapes. American Cities. Rural America. Cities Abroad. Countrysides Abroad.

Moral Agency in the Modern Age: Reading Charles Taylor through George Grant

A shared concern with the nature of moral agency in modernity makes George Grant a useful interlocutor for Charles Taylor. Taylor sees human agency as constituted by moral affirmations, as given in the process he calls “strong evaluation.” He examines the “moral sources,” including reason, nature, and God, that inform the modern identity, explaining “technological society” in light of these affirmations. Grant’s analysis of technology shares much with Taylor’s, but underlines the irreducibility of technological civilization’s “will to mastery” to any of Taylor’s moral goods. This “will” is a distinctive and constitutive affirmation of modern agents (akin to a Taylorian “source”); but it is fundamentally amoral and, indeed, corrosive of morality. Reading Grant thus offers an important corrective to Taylor’s historical account of affirmation in modernity, while challenging his theory of identity as necessarily constituted by moral goods.

The fate of human technological civilization

The question of technology's neutrality is a question that has played, and continues to play, a central role in studies of the relationship between technology and society, which is one clue to understanding the article's sustained relevance. A belief in the neutrality of technology, against which Balabanian argues, is for him only a contributing factor to a larger problem, a problem with no less at stake than the fate of human technological civilization

Moral Agency in the Modern Age: Reading Charles Taylor through George Grant

A shared concern with the nature of moral agency in modernity makes George Grant a useful interlocutor for Charles Taylor. Taylor sees human agency as constituted by moral affirmations, as given in the process he calls “strong evaluation.” He examines the “moral sources,” including reason, nature, and God, that inform the modern identity, explaining “technological society” in light of these affirmations. Grant’s analysis of technology shares much with Taylor’s, but underlines the irreducibility of technological civilization’s “will to mastery” to any of Taylor’s moral goods. This “will” is a distinctive and constitutive affirmation of modern agents (akin to a Taylorian “source”); but it is fundamentally amoral and, indeed, corrosive of morality. Reading Grant thus offers an important corrective to Taylor’s historical account of affirmation in modernity, while challenging his theory of identity as necessarily constituted by moral goods.

Ética e técnica? Dialogando com Marx, Spengler, Jünger, Heidegger e Jonas

O século XIX entendeu a técnica como um elemento central do progresso histórico, mudando nas primeiras décadas do século XX essa perspectiva. mas a crítica à técnica formulada entre as duas guerras mundiais nos vieses da crítica à cultura e, de forma emblemática, presente na obra de Oswald Spengler, ainda não coloca a técnica em relação à ética. Neste tempo do interludium bellicum (1918-1939),articula-se uma compreensão da técnica emancipada de qualquer dimensão metafísica e artística, por um lado e, por outro lado, vê-se um recarregamento da técnica com uma promessa salvacionista, utópica ou heróica, não obstante, totalmente absorvida por uma concepção materialista do mundo, concebido enquanto campo de batalha (Ernst Jünger). Martin Heidegger elaborou, no final dos anos trinta e em meados dos anos quarenta, em um movimento de distanciamento intelectual da sua época, as bases de uma filosofia da técnica com grandes repercussões. Um dos seus alunos, Hans Jonas, tenta de forma original, mas não livre de equívocos, apresentar uma ética válida para a civilização tecnológica. Segundo Jonas, a situação do homem e o contexto de qualquer propósito ético estariam hoje fundamentalmente mudados; uma ética tradicional não estaria mais à sua altura. A técnica moderna introduziu novos objetos e processos, com conseqüências até então desconhecidas, na sociedade humana, de uma maneira que exigiria uma adaptação da ética (e conseqüentemente da ação humana) aos desafios tecnológicos. A "ética do próximo" teria validez, ainda, nas "proximidades"; o futuro da humanidade no seu habitat planetário exigiria, todavia, uma "ética da responsabilidade".

Ethics in a secularized culture

The main message of the authors is directed to the actualization of the question: is it possible for religious (Christian) ethics as a deontology of praxis to be adequate to the modern man in the society of "risks and threats" (W. Beck). If we compare the socio-economic tendencies towards modernization and globalization and the socio-humanitarian (anthropological) related to the universalization of values, and to identify within the various social projects - liberalism and neo-conservatism - the mechanisms of their (tendencies) interpenetration and mutual determination, then the particularity of the particular ethos and its inadequacy to the challenges of the development of modern technological civilization should be emphasized.

Student perceptions of the first year civil engineering course content

The cooperative education model adopted by Universities of Technology in South Africa embodies the notion that both education and training are equally essential. It incorporates productive work into the curriculum as a regular and integral element of a higher education course. The present model involves three cooperative partners namely, the university, student and employer. It should, therefore, be evident that cooperative education has two main components, namely an academic component and an experiential learning component, both of which are integral to its success. To enable students to understand the relationship between academic subjects and the world of work, cooperative education involves restructuring the educational experience. For some time, industry employer representatives have suggested that education and training offered at Universities of Technology do not always address the needs of industry. They argue that graduates lack the necessary theoretical skills, training and managerial understanding to ensure immediate meaningful employment. These inadequacies contribute to unemployment and the lack of advancement opportunity within their chosen careers. In addition, there is a need to examine the perceptions of students regarding course content before they go into industry. This was the motivation for this research. The aims of the research project are twofold. Firstly, to examine the course content offered within the civil engineering diploma programme, and secondly to measure the levels of subject satisfaction. Using an exploratory approach through a survey of 123 students, this study explores the course content and satisfaction levels based on study areas in the first year program. The results indicate that students generally perceive the subject Communication Skills to be least satisfying whereas Mathematics is considered to be the most satisfying subject. This paper concludes by presenting the subject satisfaction index tool which contributes to the range of intervention strategies as envisaged by the CIDB. This further contributes towards the improvement of the overall quality of University of Technology civil engineering academic programs and also the subsequent productive employability of its graduates.

Relation between European and national identity and rigidity as a personality trait

The research presented in this paper is a part of the project ?Condition, Factors and Development of European Identity in Serbia and Montenegro?, which started in 2002 with the financial support of the Ministry for Science and Protection of Environment of the Republic of Serbia. The research studied the relation between certain kinds of social identity ( European, i.e. national identity ) on the one hand, and the degree of rigidity of the subjects on the other. The sample consisted of 2685 inhabitants of Serbia and Montenegro, of both sexes, different levels of education and 18 to 43 years old. European, i.e. national identity was measured with the questionnaire EUROID2002, which consisted of 36 items related to different aspects of social identity. Factor analysis singled out five factors of social identity: pro-European orientation, advocating the preservation of national identity, confronting traditional values and technological civilization, globalization as a threatening factor for small and poor nations, and exclusive national attachment. Rigidity of the subjects was determined with the application of the RG-2 questionnaire which consists of 30 items related to the rigidity of thought in various life situations. Factor analysis singled out two factors of rigidity: rigidity toward oneself and others, as well as rigidity in one?s life habits. The relation between social identity and rigidity was determined with the technique of canonical analysis. Two significant canonical roots were singled out: the first canonical root includes two aspects of rigidity which were positively related to the factors implying a strongly pronounced national identity ( advocating the preservation of national identity and exclusive national attachment ). The second canonical root indicates a positive relation between rigidity in life habits and traditional standpoints and fear of globalization.

Suicide as a violation of a duty of virtue

The human ways of dying are nowadays a theme of bioethics. Bioethics reacts to a technological civilization that absorbs the natural occurrence of death in technical mechanisms. The technological interventions exclude suicide from the bioethical debate on the death of human beings. Differently from bioethics, that limits itself to examine the relationships of third parties in view of the voluntary death of individuals, the Kantian doctrine of virtue considers suicide as a violation of the strict duty towards ourselves. The article discusses the reasons why Kant was opposed to suicide and situates his prohibition in the later work of the German philosopher. Key words: Kant, practical reason, suicide, doctrine of virtue, kantian theory of duties.

Making a Case for Husserl in The Philosophy of Technology

The following two statements, I take it, constitute adequately predicated claims. (1) An uncontroversial, easily defensible, and modest claim: In order to create a space for a Husserlian contribution to the philosophy of technology, much work remains to be done. (2) A controversial, potentially indefensible, and bold claim: Husserlian phenomenology possesses the resources for a contribution to the philosophy of technology. That one may accept the descriptions preceding claims (1) and (2) follows from the same reason: Husserl himself says very little (indeed almost nothing) that directly concerns technology. Nevertheless, I hope to do some of the work required by (1) and thus substantiate (2) as a suggestion worthy of further investigation. I will argue that Husserl's contribution to the philosophy of technology (i) includes an emphasis on self-responsibility; (ii) is not susceptible to either the Heideggerian critique of the subject or the Pragmatist's charge of various forms of idealism; (iii) incorporates the of Pragmatism's reconfiguration of ends; and (iv) accomplishes (iii) without uncritically upholding the sanctity of the scientific form of reason as dogma. I implicitly argue for (i) throughout, but section one presents Husserlian ethicist Ullrich Melle's suggestive theory of a Husserlian ethic for the age of technology rooted in self-responsibility. Section two briefly recounts the standard reading of Husserl from within the philosophy of technology, particularly through Heidegger and the Deweyean pragmatist perspective, highlighting the difficulties confronting (Melle's arguments for) Husserl's contributions to the philosophy of technology. Section three presents (iii) and (iv), arguing that Husserl's stated positions on science and technology lies somewhere between Heidegger and Dewey. And section four buttresses (iii) and (iv) by providing evidence against the Cartesian and Platonic readings of Husserl, thereby redressing the theoretical difficulties vitiating Melle's suggestion and creating the theoretical space for Husserl to enter into the technology discourse. Husserl, Self-Responsibility, and Ethics for the Age of Technology In his provocative article, Responsibility and the Crisis of Technological Civilization, Melle laments that citizens of the contemporary Western world find themselves in a historical circumstance where the facts of science and technology are decided independently of value questions, thus reducing genuine ethical responsibility [to] the ground of... asymmetrical relations of power.1 As the reader most likely knows, Husserl identified the passive and unreflective assimilation of the truths of science into the life-world as the primary symptom of the crisis regarding the sciences-and today we may extend this observation to include the benefits of technology. The narrow scope of modern scientific reason having secured its position of authority in the Western world, ours has become a world that does not require its decision makers or non-decision makers to evidence their convictions about science and technology. Extending Husserl's observations from The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology,2 Melle's point is that our technological convictions thus remain threatened by falsification (Melle 338). That is, citizens in the age of science and technology turn their beliefs and visions into actions without a credible guarantee of minimizing their unintended effects (both trivial and catastrophic). Our beliefs concerning technology can be falsified, moreover, to the extent that our unwillingness to reflect on their development enables the abuse of power based on class- and party-interest (Melle 339). In either event, we find ourselves the unwitting perpetuators of a cultural condition that unquestioningly encourages the exponential growth of technology. Contrary to the positions of technological determinism or substantivism-both of which maintain the automatic and linear development of technology, the latter being distinguished from the former insofar as it considers technology non-neutral3-Husserl does not identify the crisis of technology as the fate of our age. …

Athens and Jerusalem? A Critique of the Relationship Between Philosophy and Religion in George Grant's Thought

The teleology of George Grant's thought was towards Christian Platonism. Such a synthesis of Platonic philosophy and Christian religion is utilized in his critique of contemporary society through the concept of tradition. Such a concept of tradition is based on grace, which is understood as the placing of humans within a moral order that is not of our own making. The relationship between philosophy and religion is formulated in Grant's writing in five ways. The most important is in the comparison of Socrates and Jesus as the two originating figures of Western civilization. A critical analysis of this comparison shows that it is one-sided and that philosophy does not make an independent contribution to Grant's thought comparable to that of Christianity. In conclusion, the possibility of such an independent contribution of philosophy is demonstrated and it is suggested that such a contribution may not require supplementation by Christian religion. La teleologie de la pensee de George Grant tendait vers le platonisme chretien. Une telle synthese de la philosophie platoniste et de la religion chretienne est utilisee dans sa critique de la societe contemporaine en se servant du concept de « tradition ». Un tel concept se fonde sur la « grâce » que l'on decrit comme le placement des etres humains dans un ordre moral qui est defini par quelqu'un d'autre. Le rapport entre la philosophie et la religion est formule de cinq facons dans les ecrits de M. Grant. La plus importante est la comparaison entre Socrate et Jesus qui seraient les deux personnages emanant de la civilisation occidentale. Une analyse critique de cette comparaison montre qu'elle est unilaterale et que cette philosophie ne fait pas une contribution independante a la pensee de M. Grant, comparativement au christianisme. La possibilite d'une telle contribution independante de la philosophie est demontree et il est suggere qu'une telle contribution ne necessite peut-etre pas une supplementation de la religion chretienne. George Grant is best known as a critic of technological civilization and Canada's acceptance of its modern technological fate. His concrete critiques of technological civilization, however, were based upon a reflection on justice that became increasingly focussed on the relationship between Christianity and philosophy. His reflections thus take us from Canadian issues towards the fundamental issues in the construction and critique of Western civilization. Grant's final position can be termed Christian Platonism since it is centrally organized by the claim that the concept of good, or justice, in Plato is the same as that inherent in the Gospel stories of Jesus' life: That [central, pre-technological, western] account of justice was written down most carefully and most beautifully in The Republic of Plato. For those of us who are Christians, the substance of our belief is that the perfect living out of that justice is unfolded in the Gospels (Grant 1974, 93). Such a sameness, or identity, does not extend to all the details, even all important ones, of either source. It refers to their animating centre. This animating centre is the basis for a synthesis between Christianity and philosophy that was never thoroughly articulated by Grant but that nevertheless unifies his many statements about religion and philosophy. The Platonic element of this synthesis is the notion that Being, is, is itself good (and not merely a resource for human use). The Christian element is that the goodness of Being was revealed to humans in the life of Jesus. The necessity of the Christian element thus implies that Greek philosophy was in some manner deficient in expressing the goodness of Being. This deficiency was called by Grant in classical language charity. Greek philosophy (due to its orientation to reason, which is unequal in humans) did not see the truth that all humans are due charity, or consideration for what they need. The necessity of the Platonic element suggests that the exemplary character of the life of Jesus requires some supplementation by philosophy, or reason, in order that what is due for humans be understood as rooted in Being itself (and not merely, or only, as a human choice). …

Interview with professor Denis Poussart: crystal ball: key issues of the next decades

In this paper, Professor Poussart, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and of the World Innovation Foundation, discusses the important issues of science and engineering that have led to our current technological civilization. In particular, he emphasizes the importance of materials, the breakthroughs in the fundamental sciences. From there, he outlines the main points that will be essential in the next decades: parallel processing, complexity, connectivity, convergence of disciplines. He also presents his vision of the future, the twenty-first century break that could lead to artificial life and transhumanism. Finally, he also points out the importance of a strong curriculum for the coming generations (of engineers) that will decide thirty years from now.