Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

section explores what we know about the
This
between technology and society,
relationship
why it matters. Consider the two opposing
and
one, that technology drives history,
perspectives:
the other that society determines the type
and
technology that exists. Which perspective
of
you agree with, and how would you
would
How we answer this question has
know?
for knowledge; for example, if
implications
development regularly outpaces
technological
development, institutions and ethics need
social
evolve to guide this progress.
to
Marx, among others, held the view that
Karl
was one of the determinants of
technology
or historical outcomes and structures, as
social
quote reveals: “The hand-mill gives you
this
with the feudal lord, the steam-mill,
society
with the industrial capitalist.” This
society
a form of technological determinism which
is
that technology develops according to
posits
own internal logic, and that as it advances it
its
cultural and social patterns to fit itself.
moulds
does technological determinism look like
What
practice? One argument is that the political
in
that follow technological advancement
structures
tend towards a particular order. Consider,
will
example, David Hayes’ view on the political
for
that would form around widespread
structure
increased deployment of nuclear power
The
must lead society toward authoritarianism.
facilities
safe reliance upon nuclear power as the
Indeed,
source of energy may be possible only in a
principal
state … dispersed solar sources are more
totalitarian
than centralized technologies with social
compatible
was speculating that nuclear energy
Hayes
more centralized administrative power
requires
for instance, solar energy, which could
versus,
completely decentralized. You could live
be
and autonomously off the grid with
comfortably
energy, but not with nuclear.
solar
get out of this dichotomy, Langdon Winner,
To
his influential 1980 essay “Do artifacts have
in
proposed a middle path, the coproduction
politics?"
of technology and society, naming it
politics”. We explore this further
“technological
section IV.
in
the development of technology, technical
In
and knowledge have historically been
skill
Put simply, men’s disproportionate
gendered.
and power in the field made an impact
influence
3II. Perspectives
I I . P E R S P E C T I V E S
II.1 Determinisms: On the relationship
between technology and society
II.2 Coded male: Identity and technology
on technology that can still be felt today. For
In this way, it drives history.
nuclear energy.
equity, freedom and cultural pluralism.
(Hayes 1977)
Figure 3.4 Man operating a Linotype machine in the early 20th
century
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