Università Roma Tre

the politics of technology

Philosophy of technology is a relatively recent discipline that deals with relationships between Technology, knowledge and society.
The course wants to answer to the following questions:
What is technology?
Is it possible to think about science without a reflexion on technology in the present technoscientific environment?
Which are the relationships between society and technology?
Which are the relevant changes introduced by technology in living styles?
Is it possible to consider technology as neutral and value and ideology free?
Technology has a relevant and permanent influence on science and on knowledge building in general but also on the definition of society and its working assets. Technical artefacts produce changes on society and are influenced by social choices, political constraints and economical investments.
In this course we will discuss the importance of philosophy of technology for philosophy itself, if we accept the idea that philosophy is a research for understanding and for acting on present. If we accept this perspective we cannot ignore the importance of technology.
Technology is created according to projects, objectives and standards on which society has no direct control, but technical objects have relevant consequences on the functioning of social practices including the epistemological ones.
Technology is a normative discipine (different from science). Its object is not the study of how things are in the world. it imposes an organization on the world in order for its devices to work correctly. It proposes and orders a regulation for society and it is in need that society imposes a regulation on its implementation: not all that it is feasible technically it is allowed.

Parini E. G. e Pellegrino G.(eds) (2009) S come scienza T come tecnica e riflessione sociologica, Liguori Ed., Milano, pp. 120-264.
Stiegler B.(2019) La società automatica, Mimesis, Milano.
Crawford K. (2021) Atlas Of AI, Yale University Press, New Haven.