The Distinction between Modern and Pre-modern Technology: An Anthropological Approach
Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PhD Graduate of Tehran University, Farabi Campus
2 Associate professor in Department of Philosophy, Isfahan University
10.22034/ra.2019.66846.1984
Abstract
Considering the great ambiguity in the adjective “Modern” of the expression “modern technology”, the paper introduces and criticizes the dominant approach among scholars and critics of technology- which is an absolutist approach and holds that technology has a definite and constant nature- and then suggests a new approach, regarding modern in such a relative and applied sense that enjoys benefits of impartiality and efficiency in comparison with the absolutist one. It is worth mentioning that the threefold norms for modern quality of technology in the latter approach are acquired through anthropological bases and show that what changes and developments have been beared by modern technology, as taken it for man and near him. These distinctions have implications for thinkers in morality, psychology, sociology and anthropology to arrive at a better interpretation and understanding of modern man`s behavior and give instructions for his intricate condition to be improved.
Keywords
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