Seminar: The Difficulties of Technology [Fall 2024]

Progress and peril for the human future are promised by every new technological development or advance and in seemingly every new conversation, op-ed, thinkpiece, or any other words offered upon the topic.  Technology will destroy us—technology will save us.  But these promises, no matter how well-articulated, and amplified though they may be by alarmists and enthusiasts alike, yet produce a tone cluster wherein truth and falsity cannot be distinguished.  How is it that even the seemingly accurate statements of technologists, scientists, and philosophers alike remain not only insufficient but perhaps also misleading, when it comes to questions of technology and its role in our lives?  Why do we continue to miss the mark?

A deep philosophical abyss undermines even the very best technological discussions of today: an abyss caused by ignorance of both human nature and the complexities of causality.  We remain trapped in a misunderstanding of technology because we have not adequately grasped its essence; we have continued to conceive it only in incomplete and superficial manners, despite—perhaps even because—of its ubiquity. Drawing upon the insights of Martin Heidegger, Lewis Mumford, Marshall McLuhan, and, among many others, the traditions of Aristotelian-Thomism and Peircean Semiotics, this seminar will strive to unveil the essence of technology and thereby provide means to resolve the persistent technological difficulties which we human beings naturally confront.