Philosophies of Technologies

Valérie Charolles is a researcher at the Laboratoire d'anthropologie politique (CNRS and EHESS), where she directs the LACI (Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Critical Anthropology), France. Her research focuses on the place of economics, quantification and technology in the contemporary world. Élise Lamy-Rested is a SASPRO2 Marie Sklodowska-Curie researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia. She is also a former program director at the Collège international de philosophie.

Author Presentation xi

Acknowledgments xv
Valérie CHAROLLES and Élise LAMY-RESTED

Introduction xvii
Valérie CHAROLLES and Élise LAMY-RESTED

Part 1 Continuities and Disruptions in the Practices of Philosophies of Technologies 1

Introduction to Part 1 3
Élise LAMY-RESTED

Chapter 1 The Question of Technology and Ecological Constraints 5
Pierre CAYE

1.1 What is the appropriate metaphysics for ecology? 6

1.2 Technology and limits 10

1.3 For transcendental poetics: technology at the service of our relationship with space and time 16

1.4 References 18

Chapter 2 From Power to Care: For an Object-Oriented Philosophy of Technology 21
Xavier GUCHET

2.1 Empirical and "thingly" turn in the philosophy of technology 21

2.2 From technology as power to technology as care 23

2.3 Places and connections 27

2.4 References 29

Chapter 3 Thinking in the Anthropocene Era with Henri Bergson 31
Élise LAMY-RESTED

3.1 Homo faber 32

3.2 Intelligence as an instinct 33

3.3 Life as an organization 37

3.4 Conclusion: the power and limits of general organology 39

3.5 References 40

Part 2 Epistemological Challenges of Modern Technologies 41

Introduction to Part 2 43
Valérie CHAROLLES

Chapter 4 The Code Paradigm: Trace Amnesia and Arbitrary Interpretation 47
Bruno BACHIMONT

4.1 Introduction 47

4.2 The ages of knowledge 48

4.2.1 The age of resemblance 49

4.2.2 The age of causality 50

4.2.3 The age of coding 51

4.3 Digital technology and coding 52

4.4 Interpreting coded content 54

4.5 Conclusion 56

4.6 References 57

Chapter 5 "Motion" Machines and "Token" Machines: Milestones in the History of the Alphabet 59
Jean LASSÈGUE

5.1 Introduction 59

5.2 Two comments on technology from François Sigaut 60

5.3 Renewal of the technology–language relationship based on François Sigaut 6

5.4 Writing as a tool 62

5.4.1 "Motion" machine hardware 63

5.4.2 The semiotic mechanism of "token" machines 63

5.5 Conclusion 68

5.6 References 69

Chapter 6 "Digital Technology", Revealing Intersections between Epistemology, Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Technology 71
Éric GUICHARD

6.1 Introduction 71

6.2 Our thought is essentially technical 73

6.3 Writing is a technology 74

6.4 Internet as writing 77

6.5 The robbing of writing and our free will 78

6.6 Should political philosophy be renewed? 83

6.7 Conclusion 85

6.8 References 85

Part 3 The Subject in the Era of Digital Metamorphosis 89

Introduction to Part 3 91
Élise LAMY-RESTED

Chapter 7 Taking Care of Digital Technologies with Bernard Stiegler 95
Vincent PUIG

7.1 Memories and writings, retention and protention: constructing the organology of the spirit 96

7.2 Reflexivity for transindividuation 101

7.3 Taking care of intermittence 103

7.4 Toward a benevolent disposition 105

7.5 The practice of knowledge and the contribution economy 108

7.6 References 109

Chapter 8 Predictive Machines and Overcoming Metaphysics 111
Anna LONGO

8.1 Cybernetic machines and intelligent machines 111

8.2 The overcoming of metaphysics and the automation of knowledge production 113

8.3 References 118

Chapter 9 Artificial Intelligence’s New Clothes 119
Tyler REIGELUTH

9.1 The automation of the other 120

9.2 (Un)controlled intelligence 123

9.3 An endgame 127

9.4 References 128

Part 4 Politics and Technology 131

Introduction to Part 4 133
Valérie CHAROLLES

Chapter 10 Controlling Digital Technologies: Between Democratic Issues and Social Demand 137
Pierre-Antoine CHARDEL

10.1 Introduction 137

10.2 Dematerialization leads to an inability to act 137

10.3 Technologies and their social practices 138

10.4 Deconstructing techno-discourses for a better life with technology 140

10.5 Digital micropolitics 142

10.6 Promoting pluralism 143

10.7 Conclusion 143

10.8 References 144

Chapter 11 Responsibilities System: Ethics of Civic Technology 147
Bernard REBER

11.1 Introduction 147

11.2 Improvisations on Jonasian responsibility 148

11.3 Civic technologies 150

11.4 The limited promise of remote participation 152

11.5 Contributions of the philosophy of technology 154

11.6 Conclusion 156

11.7 References 157

Chapter 12 From the Infinite Universe to the Reflexive System: Uses of Technology, States of Emergency and Decidability 161
Valérie CHAROLLES

12.1 Introduction 161

12.2 Deployment of technology and exceptional events 162

12.3 From the infinite universe to the reflexive system or the end of naturality 165

12.4 The unsuitability of the Enlightenment framework 167

12.5 A place for politics and the decidable 170

12.5.1 The question of frames of thought 170

12.5.2 Decidable support and the role of rules 172

12.6 Conclusion 175

12.7 References 175

Conclusion Marcuse's Critique of Technology Today 179
Andrew FEENBERG

List of Authors 195

Index 197