Just a cog in the machine?

Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate that the philosophy of technology grounded in the humanities has relevance for practising technologists. Technologists occupy a problematic role in the philosophy of technology. On the one hand their privileged position vis-a-vis technology appears to offer them a powerful role in shaping the development of technology. On the other, the philosophical discourse (and indeed the wider discourse of the humanities) often limits them to being mere cogs in a broader sociotechnical machinery. The extent to which technology is deterministic has been a recurrent question in the philosophy of technology, with responses including substantivism, instrumentalism, develop..