Don Ihde (; born 1934) is an American
philosopher of science
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
.
[Katinka Waelbers, ''Doing Good with Technologies: Taking Responsibility for the Social Role of Emerging Technologies'', Springer, 2011, p. 77.] In 1979 he wrote what is often identified as the first North American work on philosophy of technology, ''Technics and Praxis''.
Before his retirement, Ihde was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
. In 2013 Ihde received the
Golden Eurydice Award
The Golden Eurydice Award is presented for an outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, in the field of biophilosophy. It is awarded by the International Forum for Biophilosophy which was established in Belgium by royal decree in 1 ...
.
Ihde is the author of over twenty original books and the editor of many others. Ihde lectures and gives seminars internationally and some of his books and articles have appeared in a dozen languages.
Major concepts and thought
Postphenomenology
Don Ihde uses the theoretical tools of
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
to analyse technology, and specifically the relations between humans and technological artefacts.
Rather than thinking about technology as an abstract category, postphenomenological analysis looks at actual artefacts and the way they interact with users.
Technologies, according to this view, mediate our relationship to the world, influencing the way we see it, understand it, act on it.
Other important authors in the field of postphenomenology are
Peter-Paul Verbeek
Peter-Paul Verbeek (born 6 December 1970, in Middelburg) is Rector Magnificus of the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Science and Technology in a Changing World since 1 October 2022.
Prior to his appointment i ...
and
Robert Rosenberger.
Bodies in cyberspace
Ihde's work ''Bodies in Technology''
spells out the original exploration of the ways cyberspace affects the human experience. The book explores embodiment in cyberspace with references to
human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design tec ...
(HCI) research. The main question of the book is the meaning of bodies in technology.
Ihde rejects
Cartesian dualism Cartesian means of or relating to the French philosopher René Descartes—from his Latinized name ''Cartesius''. It may refer to:
Mathematics
*Cartesian closed category, a closed category in category theory
* Cartesian coordinate system, moder ...
. Even to have an out of body experience is to have an implicit 'here-body' from which we experience an 'object-body' over there. He has further explored these arguments in his book ''Bodies in Technology''.
Beginning with a "phenomenology of multistability" in the way various "technological media" are perceived, Ihde examines the "roles of human embodiment, perception, and spatial transformations within communication and information media."
Ihde argues that movies like the
Matrix trilogy
''The Matrix'' is an American media franchise consisting of four feature films, beginning with '' The Matrix'' (1999) and continuing with three sequels, '' The Matrix Reloaded'', ''The Matrix Revolutions'' (both 2003), and '' The Matrix Resurre ...
play upon fantasy in a technological context and relate to the human sense of embodiment. He stresses an important fact that we have to experience the embodiment where we live, rather than to "plugin" to a technofantasies world.
Technoscience
The study of
technoscience
In common usage, technoscience refers to the entire long-standing global human activity of technology combined with the relatively recent scientific method that occurred primarily in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Technoscience is the ...
examines cutting-edge work in the fields of the philosophies of science and technology, and science studies; it also emphasizes the roles of our material cultures and expertise. According to Ihde, science and technology are in a symbiotic relationship, where scientific research relies fully on the development of scientific instruments, the technological development.
In a paper "Was Heidegger prescient concerning Technoscience?", Ihde re-examines
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
's philosophy of science with a reappraisal of what was innovative, and what remained archaic. Heidegger then is read against the background of the "new" approaches to science in science studies, and against the background of the scientific revolutions which have occurred since the mid-20th century.
Material and expanding hermeneutics
Ihde has introduced the concept of material hermeneutics, which characterises much practice within the domains of technoscience. He rejects the vestigial
Diltheyan division between the
humanistic
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
and
natural sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
and argues that certain types of critical interpretation, broadly hermeneutic, characterize both sets of disciplines. He examines what he calls a style of interpretation based in material practices relating to imaging technologies which have given rise to the visual hermeneutics in technoscience studies.
With references to science studies, sociology of science and feminist critique of science, Ihde has presented the idea of expanding hermeneutics, which emphasises praxis, instruments and laboratories over theoretical work. He claims that in science, the instruments and technologies used operate in a hermeneutic way.
Philosophers in "R&D"
Ihde has argued on numerous occasions that "if the philosopher is to play a more important role it must not be only in or limited to the Hemingway role. Rather, it should take place in the equivalent of the officers' strategy meeting, before the battle takes shape. I will call this the 'R&D role'".
[Ihde, D (1999) Technology and Prognostic Predicaments, AI & Soc (1999) 13:44-51, Springer-Verlag London] Philosophers should engage themselves on interdisciplinary research teams and actively participate in research and development work.
He has claimed that only by having philosophers in the R&D labs they can have truly new and emerging technologies that are philosophically engaged. Philosophers, precisely postphenomenologists, could help the scientific community to think about the future, rather than only about present-day phenomena or the past.
[Ihde, D (2003) Postphenomenology - Again? (pp. 1 -30) Working Papers from Centre for STS Studies Department of Information & Media Studies, University of Aarhus, Published by The Centre for STS Studies, Aarhus]
Selected works
Books
*''Sense and Significance'' (1973)
*''Listening and Voice: A phenomenology of sound'' (1976)
*''Experimental Phenomenology: An Introduction'' (1977)
*''Technics and Praxis: A Philosophy of Technology'' (1979)
*''Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosopher of Paul Ricoeur'' (1980)
*''Existential Technics'' (1983)
*''Consequences of Phenomenology'' (1986)
*''Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth'' (1990)
*''Instrumental Realism'' (1991)
*''Postphenomenology: essays in the postmodern context'' (1993)
*''Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction'' (1998)
*''Expanding Hermeneutics: Visualism in Science'' (1999)
*''Bodies in Technology'' (2001)
*''Chasing Technoscience'' (2003)
*''Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound'' (2nd expanded edition, 2007)
*''Ironic Technics'' (2008)
*''Postphenomenology and Technoscience'' (Chinese 2008, English 2009; also in Spanish, Hebrew and forthcoming Portuguese)
*''Embodied Technics'' (2010)
*''Heidegger's Technologies: Postphenomenological Perspectives'' (2010)
*''Expanded 2nd edition, Experimental Phenomenology: Multistabilities'' (2012)
*''Acoustic Technics'' (2015)
*''Husserl's Missing Technologies'' (2016)
*''Medical Technics'' (2019)
Articles
* Ihde, D. (1997). Thingly hermeneutics/Technoconstructions in ''Man and World'' 30: 369–381, 1997, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
* Ihde, D. (2000). Technoscience and the 'other' continental philosophy in ''Continental Philosophy Review'' 33: 59–74, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
* Ihde, D. (2003). ''THE ULTIMATE PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTION'' (pp. 59 – 67) in Interfaces 21/22 http://topologicalmedialab.net/xinwei/classes/readings/Arakawa+Gins/Interfaces-Arakawa_volume21-22-1.pdf
* Ihde, D. (2004). A phenomenology of technics. In D. M. Kaplan (Ed.) Readings in the philosophy of technology (pp. 137–159). Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield.
* Ihde D. (2004a). ''Simulation and embodiment'' In: yearbook of the Institute of Advanced Study on Science, Technology and Society, Profil Verlag, pp 231–244.
* Ihde D. (2006). Technofantasies and embodiment. In: Diocaretz M, Herbrechter S (eds) The matrix in theory, (Rodopi, 2006), pp 153–166.
* Ihde D. (2008). Of which human are we post? In: The global spiral (Publication of Metanexus Institute) vol 9, Issue 3, June 2008.
References
External links
Don Ihde – ''The fantasy draws upon deep human desires'' where Ihde is talking about history of technofantasies, postphenomenology of embodiment and transhumanism
Interview with Don Ihde May 2003.
Interview (audio) with Ihde March 2006.
A festschrift on IhdeIhde on Listening and Voice. Phenomenologies of Soundpublished in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 12 No. 2, Spring 2008
Contributors discuss Don Ihde's ''corpus'' on postphenomenologypublished in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 12 No. 2, Spring 2008
published in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, vol. 7 no. 2, 2003
published in Techné 6:3 Spring 2003
Don Ihde: Postphenomenology, Embodiment and Transhumanism, Society for Social Studies of Science, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 23, 2014 (with Subtitles in Portuguese)Interview with Don Ihde @ Figure/Ground. September 4th, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ihde, Don
1934 births
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century American philosophers
American male non-fiction writers
American philosophy academics
American consciousness researchers and theorists
Continental philosophers
Descartes scholars
Heidegger scholars
Hermeneutists
Lecturers
Living people
Phenomenologists
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of science
Philosophers of social science
Philosophers of technology
Philosophy writers
Stony Brook University faculty
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers