Philosophy of technology

The philosophy of technology is a reflective inquiry into the assumptions, values, knowledge claims, and consequences embedded in human making and doing, especially when people design, use, and organize tools, systems, and processes. It examines what technology is (beyond mere tools), how technological artifacts are designed and used, and how technology differs from science and craft. The philosophy of technology deals with ethical, social, and political problems--major questions include whether technology is value-neutral; how responsibility for technological risks should be assigned; and how technologies shape human behavior, culture, power relations, and conceptions of knowledge and agency.

In the West, philosophical discussion of technology (or its Greek ancestor techne) dates back to ancient Greek philosophy. In premodern times, Chinese technology was not primarily organized around Greek techne or Promethean mastery over nature. Instead, it was embedded in relations between dao, qi, li, morality, heaven, and cosmic harmony. Chinese technical practices were therefore not simply “technology” in the modern Western sense, but part of a broader moral-cosmological order.