This
volume draws on an international workshop held at the University of Twente in
the Netherlands in November 1999. One of its three editors, Thomas J. Misa,
wrote the introductory essay,"The Compelling Tangle of Modernity and
Technology." He explains the tangle in Habermasian terms, as the tangle of
lifeworld and system; the term denotes denial of technological determinism. Misa
writes that one goal of the volume is "to examine modernist icons such as
airports, harbors,train stations, mechanical clocks, automobiles,
pharmaceuticals, and surveillance and information technologies in the light of
social theory" (2). Judged by this goal it can’t be said that the volume
is a success, because the contributors stay at a familiar distance from such
particularity. At this distance what’s in focus is not the set of icons that Misa
refers to, but rather (1) familiar figures in the field, including but by no
means limited to (in alphabetical order) Adorno, Baudrillard, Borgmann, Durkheim,
Foucault, Giddens, Habermas, Harvey, Hegel, Heidegger, Jameson, Latour, Lyotard,
Marcuse, Marx, Nietzsche, Rorty, Kuhn, Weber, Winner, and (2) the ideas
associated with these figures, including but by no means limited to (in
alphabetical order) capitalism, critical theory, hermeneutic circle,
industrialism, lifeworld, master narratives, military power, modernity,
paradigms, postmodernity, progress, rationalization, surveillance, technology,
revolution. The authors in this volume stir the pot of figures and ideas with
vigor and intelligence, making for a more or less savory stew, according to
one’s taste. But the promise of revealing concrete universals by close scrutiny
of modernist icons is unfulfilled. Often the lines of influence leading to
insights, such as they are, are quite clear. For instance, Andrew Feenberg’s
"Modernity and Technology Studies" develops a model of "deworlding
and disclosure" that draws on Heidegger’s seminal work, and Barbara L.
Marshall’s "Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, and Technology Studies"
applies this model to Viagra’s deworlding of the penis. The promise to study
the icons of modernity is fulfilled in small part in some essays, notably Paul
N. Edwards’ essay "Infrastructure and Modernity," which takes a
detailed look at the ARPANET and some other infrastructures of modernity, and
Junichi Murata’s "Creativity of Technology: An Origin of Modernity?
", which writes helpfully about clocks. A sense of consensus within a
community of ideas is no doubt responsible for what an observer would regard as
uncritical acceptance of Kuhn’s leading ideas, as in formulations like Feenberg’s
"He [Kuhn] showed that….". There are many outside this community, Popperians
and other philosophers of science, who would argue that such celebrations of
Kuhn’s proofs are premature. The essays collected in this volume would be
commendable contributions to a conference "proceedings" volume, but
they are not ready for the prime time implied by the MIT Press imprimatur.

© 2005 Wesley Cooper

Wesley
Cooper, Ph.D., Dept Philosophy, University of Alberta, Canada

Categories: Philosophical, Ethics