2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The significance and the scope of the "inessentialism" in the philosophy of technology
| Project/Area Number |
13610004
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Philosophy
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
MURATA Junichi The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Professor, 大学院・総合文化研究科, 教授 (40134407)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | philosophy of technology / inessentialism / social constructivism / technological determinism |
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| Research Abstract |
One of the main characteristics of the recent situation in the philosophy of technology is the popularity of the social constructivist approach. According to this approach, the process and product of technology are not strictly determined by the "pure" technological logic, but open to various social influences and "interpretatively flexible". On the other hand, this approach does not result in the social determinism, but rather in a kind of "indeterminism" or "inessentialism", according to which the process and product of technology are determined by multi-dimensional factors. This approach has a merit of making the philosophy of technology set in a fruitful interaction with various empirical investigations, such as history and sociology of tehcnology. But on the other hand, there is a criticism against this approach, according to which too much flexibility brings about the indifference to political consequences of technology and makes the traditional role of philosophy impossible. Against this criticism, I have tried to show that the "inessentialism" can play a positive and critical role in the philosophy of technology.
The main point of the inessentialism is that technological phenomena is fundamentaly ambiguos and ambivalent. However advantageous and certain a design seems to be, it cannot be a perfect design, and we cannot eliminate a possibility of failure. If we take this "otherness" character of technology seriously, it is not the search for the usefulness and certainty but rather the possibility of failure and recognition of the unknown factors that must be the main target of the design process. In this way, according to the "inessentialism" the principle of design and the understanding of technology must be fundamentally changed.
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