Andrew Feenberg (born 1943) is an American philosopher. He holds the

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

in Vancouver. His main interests are

philosophy of technology The philosophy of technology is a sub-field of philosophy that studies the nature of technology and its social effects. Philosophical discussion of questions relating to technology (or its Greek ancestor ''techne'') dates back to the very dawn of ...

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

, critique of technology and

science and technology studies Science and technology studies (STS) or science, technology, and society is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. Histo ...

Education

Feenberg studied philosophy under

Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse ( ; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German–American philosopher, social critic, and Political philosophy, political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at ...

at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

and was awarded his PhD in 1972. During this time Feenberg was active in the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...

, founding a journal entitled ''Alternatives'' and participating in the May '68 events in Paris.

Feenberg's philosophy of technology

Compared to his predecessors in philosophy of technology, such as

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

and Jacques Ellul who have a dystopian view of technology, Feenberg's view is positive even though critical. For

Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language. In April ...

and Ellul technology affects people's life but is for the most part beyond their control. For Feenberg technology and society influence each other. He separates himself from the instrumentalists who view technology merely as instruments which are within humans' full control. Feenberg's primary contribution to the philosophy of technology is his argument for the democratic transformation of technology. From his book ''Transforming Technology,'' :"What human beings are and will become is decided in the shape of our tools no less than in the action of statesmen and political movements. The design of technology is thus an ontological decision fraught with political consequences. The exclusion of the vast majority from participation in this decision is profoundly undemocratic" (p.3). Feenberg provides the theoretical foundation for this idea through the Critical Theory of Technology which he develops over three books: ''The Critical Theory of Technology'' (1991) (re-published as ''Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited'' 002, ''Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory'' (1995), and ''Questioning Technology'' (1999). The basis of Feenberg's critical theory of technology is a concept of dialectical technological rationality he terms instrumentalization theory. Instrumentalization theory combines the social critique of technology familiar from the philosophy of technology (

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

, Jacques Ellul) with insights taken from the empirical case studies of

. Applications of his theory include studies of online education, the Minitel, the Internet, and digital games. Feenberg has also published books and articles on the philosophy of

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...

, Georg Lukacs, and Kitarō Nishida.

Selected works

Books

Author * ''Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory'' (Rowman and Littlefield, 1981; Oxford University Press, 1986) * ''Critical Theory of Technology'' (Oxford University Press, 1991), later republished as Transforming Technology (Oxford University Press, 2002), see below. * ''Alternative Modernity'' (University of California Press, 1995) * ''Questioning Technology'' (Routledge, 1999). * ''Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited'' (Oxford University Press, 2002). * ''Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History'' (Routledge 2005). * ''Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity'' (MIT Press, 2010). * ''The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt School'' (Verso Press, 2014). * ''Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason'' (Harvard University Press, 2017). * ''The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing: Nature and Revolution in Marcuse's Philosophy of Praxis'' (Verso Press, 2023). Editor * w/ R. Pippen & C.Webel, ''Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia'' (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1988) * w/ A. Hannay, ''Technology and the Politics of Knowledge'' (Indiana University Press, 1995) * w/ T. Misa & P. Brey, ''Modernity and Technology'' (MIT Press, 2003) * w/ D. Barney, ''Community in the Digital Age'' (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004). * w/ W. Leiss, ''The Essential Marcuse: Selected Writings of Philosopher and Social Critic Herbert Marcuse'' (Beacon Press, 2007).

References

*Zachry, Mark (2007). "An Interview with Andrew Feenberg", ''Technical Communication Quarterly'', 16(4).

External links