Borgmann’s Proposal to Reform Technology

Borgmann’s Proposal to Reform Technology

Albert Borgmann follows the general project by Heidegger to see how technology has harmful effects on humanity and to determine how it can be reformed. Borgmann shares Heidegger’s view that modern technology is starkly different from premodern technology in its pattern of disclosing the world to human beings. Borgmann agrees that a sort of ethical reform must be undertaken to limit technological ways of living from dominating the lives of individuals and to keep technology in its place. His proposal for a direction of reform first takes cues from Heidegger but then asserts the need for different tactics.

First, we look at Borgmann’s chapter "Focal Things and Practices." Here he names the things that matter in directing human lives "focal." Focal things contribute to the direction and ordering of one’s life in a productive way, and they disclose the world and illuminate the context of themselves and their related life activities. He actually uses a lot of verbs to convey the sense of focus with which he is concerned, so no one terse definition is given.

Borgmann agrees with Heidegger that the simple kinds of things are those that focus a gathering of information about the world and benefit human beings by highlighting important life concerns, though he thinks that Heidegger sees the use of these things as too much an escape from technology rather than an affirmation of it. These simple, focal things are premodern objects, such as Heidegger’s example of an earthen jug, or even activities. The jug gathers and discloses the world because it is made of the earth and is used to store wine from grapes that grow in the earth; furthermore, the jug is used in the human context of tradition, ...

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... things and practices are without being misguided by the level of a thing’s technological complexity. It seems that if focal practices engage certain elements but technology does not in principle exclude those elements, both of which Borgmann agrees, then it is not necessary to maintain Borgmann’s criticism of modern technological things. His concern is the pattern in which technology is currently engaged, and he has not at all made it clear how the troublesome disunities and commodities are necessarily related to the products of modern technology. We need to find the essential features of focal concerns and apply them to a reform proposal without Borgmann’s intermediate complications.

Bibliography

Borgmann, Albert. "Focal Things and Practices." Philosophy of Technology. Ed. Robert C. Scharff and Val Dusek. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 293-312.