Overview

Advancements in science, technology, and engineering are ubiquitously embraced across the globe. Their promises—more material goods, longer and healthier lives, more convenience, and more pleasure and less suffering—and their overall track record of results have largely insulated them from critical evaluation. The problems they cause are often depicted as flaws with a particular technology in some context, and their resolutions are proposed as better technologies or different deployments. This diagnosis is accepted by most people, who, while bombarded with messages of the salvific power of STEM, know little about what its practitioners do or how most technologies work. This edited volume transcends the mood of technological optimism and disciplinary captivity to develop a critical, broad, and diverse understanding of how science, technology, and engineering have transformed human experiences, practices, and values, with an emphasis on ethics, religion, and policy. The escalating intensity of these transformations on more aspects of human existence—a trend accelerated by responses to COVID-19—and growing recognition of the severity and extent of their accompanying psychological, social, cultural, and environmental consequences make this effort timely. The chapters, many written by prominent intellectuals, draw on a range of disciplinary and cultural resources and most will likely be intellectually important and well-received individually. Taken together, the book will provide an unsurpassed composite, cross-disciplinary, and cross-cultural view of science, technology, and engineering and the transformations they cause. The book includes twenty-seven chapters by scholars from the United States, Latin America, China, and Europe. The contributions use resources from diverse disciplines and traditions to help readers to think through the always changing sociotechnical milieu in which we live and work.

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9781538176504

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Reviews

Three decades ago, Carl Mitcham created the core of philosophy of technology, and now Miller, Jeronimo and Zhu's volume Thinking through Science and Technology proves the impressive richness and ongoing societal importance of work that builds on that core. A must-read and excellent guide to state-of-the-art thinking about technology.--Pieter Vermaas, Delft University of Technology Thinking through Science and Technology is the ultimate handbook for understanding the human condition in terms of the past, present and future of technology. It is also a testimony to Carl Mitcham, whose work and example provide the intellectual platform for these essays, by authors from across the globe. Readers will learn something new from each of them, and some--such as Jean-Pierre Dupuy's and Adam Briggle's--are gems in their own right.--Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, author of Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era Thinking Through Science and Technology is a rich and urgently-needed contribution to our understanding of the built world and our vital human bonds with it. By moving across the boundaries of discipline, tradition and region, while joining newer voices with those of foundational leaders in science and technology studies, Miller, Jeronimo and Zhu open up fertile ground for exploration of the past, present and future of human-technology relations.--Shannon Vallor, The University of Edinburgh

Thinking Through Science and Technology is a rich and urgently-needed contribution to our understanding of the built world and our vital human bonds with it. By moving across the boundaries of discipline, tradition and region, while joining newer voices with those of foundational leaders in science and technology studies, Miller, Jeronimo and Zhu open up fertile ground for exploration of the past, present and future of human-technology relations.--Shannon Vallor, The University of Edinburgh

In a perfectly undogmatic manner Thinking through Science and Technology offers a broad survey of problems and approaches in contemporary philosophy of technology. Coming from many countries, representing very different intellectual traditions, what the contributors share is a sense of passion, if not urgency. The path is short from foundational reflections and laboratory work to everyday questions of how to live in times of crisis. Embarked on this path, what we need is the kind of curiosity and openness to dialogue which this diverse group of contributors brings to the volume.--Alfred Nordmann, Professor, Technische Universitat Darmstadt Three decades ago, Carl Mitcham created the core of philosophy of technology, and now Miller, Jeronimo and Zhu's volume Thinking through Science and Technology proves the impressive richness and ongoing societal importance of work that builds on that core. A must-read and excellent guide to state-of-the-art thinking about technology.--Pieter Vermaas, Delft University of Technology Thinking through Science and Technology is the ultimate handbook for understanding the human condition in terms of the past, present and future of technology. It is also a testimony to Carl Mitcham, whose work and example provide the intellectual platform for these essays, by authors from across the globe. Readers will learn something new from each of them, and some--such as Jean-Pierre Dupuy's and Adam Briggle's--are gems in their own right.--Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, author of Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era Thinking Through Science and Technology is a rich and urgently-needed contribution to our understanding of the built world and our vital human bonds with it. By moving across the boundaries of discipline, tradition and region, while joining newer voices with those of foundational leaders in science and technology studies, Miller, Jeronimo and Zhu open up fertile ground for exploration of the past, present and future of human-technology relations.--Shannon Vallor, The University of Edinburgh

Author Information

Glen Miller is instructional associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M University. He was the lead editor for Reimagining Philosophy and Technology, Reinventing Ihde, is an associate editor for the journal Science and Engineering Ethics, and has published articles on philosophy of technology, engineering, ethics, education, the environment, and business. Qin Zhu is assistant professor of Ethics and Engineering Education at Colorado School of Mines. He has co-edited a volume on philosophy and engineering and co-authored a book (in Chinese) on engineering ethics; he is currently an associate editor for the journal Engineering Studies. Helena Jerónimo is assistant professor in the School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. She was lead editor of Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century. She has published articles in both English and Portuguese on science and technology studies, risks and sustainability, and human resource management and organizational behaviour. She is a member of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology.

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