«Imagi(ni)ng Technologies»
On Don Ihde’s Postphenomenological Account of Technoscience: What is It Really Made of?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15160/2282-5460/2917Keywords:
Technology, Technoscience, Hermeneutics, Diachrony, IntersubjectivityAbstract
Don Ihde (1934-2024) has been one of the most influential philosophers of science and technology in the last five decades. Deeply influenced by Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, Ihde developed what he labelled postphenomenology, i.e., a doctrine offering a phenomenological account of the ever-increasing impact of technology on our daily lives. In his reading, technological supports such as material tools and cultural artefacts allow us to broaden the scope of our gaze and, likewise, to extend the range of our knowledge undefinedly. According to what he outlined as the empirical turn characterizing the postphenomenological agenda, Ihde argued for the «technological trajectory» leading technoscientific drive consolidating the embodied and material hermeneutic processes that corroborate and exceed the constitutive and natural «limits of human vision» (Ihde 2009, 52-56). For him, current technological capacities enable us to detect unseen phenomena, i.e., previously invisible things, when employing our bare and unaided eyes. This equally applies to visual analogies and isomorphisms, i.e., the telescopic or microscopic image rendering of very small or huge things, which are nowadays visible through special lenses, and to more sophisticated hermeneutic translations, as it is apparent in the case of radio astronomy, for instance, representing a «new way of bringing close something that is both spatially and perceptually distant» (Ihde 2009, 56). For Ihde, seeing what was invisible just a few years ago results from a cumulative and communal process spanning multiple generations of interpreters and cultures in its progressive formation and constant improvement. Moreover, it is an outcome that is always provisional, perfectible, and achievable only through technological media. However, it is not just about that. Seeing what was invisible, presents challenges we can only meet by employing these renewed hermeneutic interpretation tools. In a way, we only understand what is seeable (Heidegger 1976, 349-352). Indeed, this tele-vision is only temporally and technologically attained, and more than a synchronic rendering would be needed to justify it. As Ihde holds, only a diachronic vision can work out, and this is possible when science is «technically embodied» and becomes «technoscience» (Ihde 2016, 80). For him and his visual hermeneutics, this enhanced understanding of the world enables us to grasp multifaceted phenomena like the greenhouse effect (and to deal with them accordingly). Indeed, this singularity would be incomprehensible for a single subject or a unique generation of scientists working on its discovery. My contribution aims to pay tribute to Ihde’s work just months after his passing by showing the main features of his postphenomenological empirical turn and proving their consistency (or not).
References
Achterhuis, H. (2001) (ed.). American Philosophy of Technology. The Empirical Turn. Engl. R. P. Crease. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Arendt, H. (2019). The Human Condition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Bateson, G. (1973). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. London: Granada.
Blok, V. (2023). Philosophy of Technology in the Digital Age. The Datafication of the World, the homo virtualis, and the Capacity of Technological Innovations to Set the World Free. Inaugural lecture upon taking up the position of Personal Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Responsible Innovation at Wageningen University § Research on 7 September 2023. Wageningen: Wageningen University (https://philpapers.org/archive/VINPOT.pdf).
Blomberg, J. (2019). Interpreting the Concept of Sedimentation in Husserl’s Origin of Geometry. Public Journal of Semiotics, 9 (1), 78-94 (https://doi.org/10.37693/pjos.2019.9.22182).
Cahoone, L. E. (1986). The Interpretation of Galilean Science: Cassirer Contrasted with Husserl and Heidegger. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 17 (1), 1-21 (https://doi.org/10.1016/0039-3681(86)90016-6).
D’Amico, R. (1981). Husserl on the Foundational Structures of Natural and Cultural Sciences. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 42 (1), 5-22 (https://doi.org/10.2307/2107540).
de Boer B. et al. (2018). The Perspective of Instruments: Mediating Collectivity. Foundations of Science, 23, 4, 739-755 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-018-9545-3).
Fink, E. (1995). Sixth Cartesian Meditation. The Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method. Engl. Trans. R. Bruzina. Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press
Goris, W. (2014). L’a priori historique chez Husserl et Foucault (I). La pertinence philosophique d’un concept directeur de l’épistémologie historique. Philosophie, 123 (4), 3-27 (https://doi.org/10.3917/philo.123.0003).
Hasse, C. (2018). Studying the Telescopes of Others: Toward a Postphenomenological Methodology of Participant Observation. In J. Aagaard et al. (eds), Postphenomenological Methodologies: New Ways in Mediating Techno-human Relationships (241-258). Lanham: Lexington Books.
Heidegger M. (1976). The Age of the World View. Boundary 2, 4 (2), 340-355 (https://doi.org/10.2307/302139).
Hird, M. J. (2013). Waste, Landfills, and an Environmental Ethic of Vulnerability. Ethics & The Environment, 18 (1), 105-124 (https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.18.1.105).
Hoffman, J. et al. (2023). Destination Earth – A Digital Twin in Support of Climate Services. Climate Services, 30, 1-3 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2023.100394).
Housset, E. (1997). Personne et sujet selon Husserl. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Husserl, E. (1970). The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Engl. Trans. D. Carr. Evanston: Northwestern University Press
Husserl, E. (1977). Cartesian Meditations. An Introduction to Phenomenology. Engl. Trans. D. Cairns. Dordrecht: Springer
Ihde, D. (1979). Technics and Praxis. Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel Publishing Company.
Ihde, D. (1983). Existential Technics. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ihde, D. (1986). Consequences of Phenomenology. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ihde, D. (1990). Technology and the Lifeworld. From Garden to Earth. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Ihde, D. (1991). Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Ihde, D. (1998). Expanding Hermeneutics: Visualism in Science. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Ihde, D. (2001). Bodies in Technology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Ihde, D. (2009). Postphenomenology and Technoscience. The Peking University Lectures. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ihde, D. (2010). Heidegger’s Technologies: Postphenomenological Perspectives. New York: Fordham University Press.
Ihde, D. (2012). Experimental Phenomenology: Multistabilities. Albany: SUNY Press.
Ihde, D. (2016). Husserl’s Missing Technologies. New York: Fordham University Press.
Ihde, D. (2022). Material Hermeneutics: Reversing the Linguistic Turn. London and New York: Routledge.
Jayanti, A. (2019). Instrumental Realisms and Their Ontological Commitments: A Critical Evaluation. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 23 (1), 68-82 (https://doi.org/10.5840/techne201951396).
Kenderdine, S. (2015). Embodiment, Entanglement, and Immersion in Digital Cultural Heritage. In S. Schreibman et al. (eds), A New Companion to Digital Humanities (22-41). New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Langsdorf, L. (2016). From Interrelational Ontology to Instrumental Ethics: Expanding Pragmatic Postphenomenology. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 20 (2), 112-128 (https://doi.org/10.5840/techne20168857).
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2001). Husserl at the Limits of Phenomenology. Including Texts by Edmund Husserl. Engl. Trans. L. Lawlor & B. Bergo. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of Perception. Engl. Trans. C. Smith. London and New York: Routledge.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2010). Institution and Passivity: Course Notes from the Collège de France (1954-1955). Engl. Trans. L. Lawlor & H. Massey. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Morton, T. (2018). Being Ecological. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Nativi, S. et al. (2021). Digital Ecosystems for Developing Digital Twins of the Earth: The Destination Earth Case. Remote Sensing, 13 (11), 1-25 (https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13112119).
Polanyi, M. (1962). Personal Knowledge. Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Pradelle, D. (2008). La constitution des idéalites est-elle une création?. Les études philosophiques, 85 (2), 227-251 (https://doi.org/10.3917/leph.082.0227).
Pradelle, D. (2013). Généalogie de la raison. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Rhéaume, M. (2016). Husserl, la signification et la morsure du temps. Philosophie, 131 (4), 36-51 (https://doi.org/10.3917/philo.131.0036).
Rosenberger, R. (2023) (ed.). The Critical Ihde. Albany: SUNY.
Sartenaer. O. (2014). Synchronic vs. Diachronic Emergence: A Reappraisal. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 5, 31-54 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-014-0097-2).
Serres. M. (1995). The Natural Contract. Engl. Trans. E. MacArthur & W. Paulson. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press
Shirokanova A. (2014). New Media in Everyday Life: Reassembling the Mediated Identity. In I. Nalivaika & M. B. Tin (eds), Phenomenology of the Everyday (118-149). Oslo: Novus Press.
Stiegler, B. (2009). Technics and Time, 2. Disorientation. Engl. Trans. S. F. Barker. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.
Toadvine, T. (2024). The Memory of the World: Deep Time, Animality, and Eschatology. London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Verbeek, P.-P. (2001). Don Ihde: The Technological Lifeworld. In H. Achterhuis (ed.), American Philosophy of Technology. The Empirical Turn (119-146).
Verma, A. K. (2017). Environmental Ethics: Need to Rethink. International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 8 (1), 7-9.
Wapner, P. & Matthew, R. A. (2009). The Humanity of Global Environmental Ethics. The Journal of Environment & Development, 18 (2), 203-222 (https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496509334693).
Wiltsche, H. A. (2017). Mechanics Lost: Husserl’s Galileo and Ihde’s Telescope. Husserl Studies, 33 (2), 149-173 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-016-9204-x).
Zhang J. (2021). Transcendental Co-originariness of Subjectivity, Intersubjectivity, and the World: Another Reading of Husserl’s Transcendental Phenomenology. Human Studies, 44, 121-138 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-021-09573-8).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Riccardo Valenti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
