scholarly journals The Internet as Idea

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-410
Author(s):  
Dominic Smith ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Transcendental Idealism ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Regulative Idea ◽  
Philosophical Consideration

This article has two related aims: to examine how the Internet might be rendered an object of coherent philosophical consideration and critique, and to contribute to divesting the term “transcendental” of the negative connotations it carries in contemporary philosophy of technology. To realise them, it refers to Kant’s transcendental approach. The key argument is that Kant’s “transcendental idealism” is one example of a more general and potentially thoroughgoing “transcendental” approach focused on conditions that much contemporary philosophy of technology misunderstands or ignores, to the detriment of the field. Diverse contemporary approaches are engaged to make this claim, including those of Verbeek, Brey, Stiegler, Clark and Chalmers, Feenberg, and Fuchs. The article considers how these approaches stand in relation to tendencies towards determinism, subjectivism, and excessive forms of optimism and pessimism in contemporary considerations of the Internet. In terms of Kant’s transcendental idealism, specifically, it concludes by arguing that contemporary philosophy of technology does not go far enough in considering the Internet as a “regulative idea”; in terms of transcendental approaches more generally, it concludes by arguing that openness to the transcendental has the potential to call into question presuppositions regarding what constitutes an “empirical” object of enquiry in philosophy of technology, thereby, opening the field up to important new areas of research.

Derrida’s Quasi-Technique

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-389
Author(s):  
Susanna Lindberg
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
The Other ◽  
List Type ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
As If

The article’s aim is to measure the potential of Derrida’s work for a philosophy of technique. It shows why Derrida does not present a positive philosophy of technology but rather describes technique as a quasi-technique, as if a technique. The article inquires into the potential of such a quasi-technique for a contemporary philosophy of technology: it is suggested that it can function as a salutary “deconstruction” of mainstream philosophy of technology (that “knows” the “essence of technology”) because it shows how to think technique in the absence of essence and as the absence of essence. The article begins with a survey of the machines that figure in Derrida’s texts. It then examines three propositions concerning technology in Derrida’s work: Derrida thinks technology as a metaphor of writing and not the other way round. Derrida thinks technique as prosthesis, firstly of memory, then more generally of life. Derrida’s quasi-technique relies on his peculiar conception of the incorporal materiality of technique.

scholarly journals Philosophy of technology: performance review and expected development

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 01019
Author(s):  
Elena Papchenko ◽  
Ruslan Bazhenov ◽  
Emma Bestaeva ◽  
Sergey Bogatenkov
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Performance Review ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Classical Philosophy ◽  
Development Outcomes

The paper is related to viewing the genesis and prospects for the development of one of the most important branches of philosophy - the philosophy of technology. The authors begin their survey with the time when a grounding of the philosophy of technology was given, i.e. when technology became comprehensible in terms of a philosophical and philosophical point of view until such extended studies concerned to the technology that developed into one of the most dominating factors in social development. It is reported that exact antipodes of opinion were made up in the classical philosophy of technology. Criticism of technology lasted long till its sacral significance and understanding technological reality requirements. Finally, it culminated in creating various approaches to study technology: engineering, humanitarian, social and philosophical. However, a pragmatic approach to the technology observation and development outcomes developed gradually. The paper comes to the point that contemporary philosophy of technology is harmonious and holistic in nature.

“Marvel at Nothing”: Reconsidering Kierkegaard’s Category of Recollection through Social Networking Services

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudmundur Bjorn Thorbjornsson ◽  
Karl Verstrynge
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
Scholarly Discussion

AbstractSurprisingly little has been written about Kierkegaard’s thought in relation to the Internet in general, and Social Networking Services in particular. Scholarly discussion about Kierkegaard and the Internet has focused nearly solely on his 1846 Literary Review of Two Ages, in relation to his view on the press and the public. In this article, Kierkegaard’s category of recollection is taken into the contemporary discussion in media studies, philosophy of technology and sociology regarding the question of what it means to exist online. Recollection is presented here as a way of existing online and is discussed in relation to everyday existential encounters such as death, breakups, dating, hookups, and identity construction. The aim of this article is to offer a reading of Kierkegaard’s thought in relation to the Internet through the lens of his category of recollection

scholarly journals 3rd ICTs and Society Meeting; Paper Session - Theorizing the Internet; Paper 5: Shaping the third mode of human existence on the Internet

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-135
Author(s):  
László Ropolyi
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Paper Session ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Society Meeting ◽  
The Third ◽  
Communication Culture ◽  
Late Modern

We propose to build up a philosophy of the Internet instead of building up its scientific theory. Our philosophy of the Internet includes several components of the philosophy of technology, information, communication, culture and organization because we use four different coexisting contexts for the better understanding of the nature of the Internet: the technological, the communication, the cultural and the organism ones. This philosophy of the Internet shows that the Internet is the sphere of a new mode of human existence, basically independent from, but built on and coexisting with the former (natural and societal) spheres of existence, and created by the late-modern humans.

Musical Improvisation and the Philosophy of Music

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Alperson
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Music ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Improvised Music ◽  
Philosophical Consideration ◽  
Musical Improvisation ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter argues that the prevailing orienting concepts and tenets of contemporary philosophy of music—the centrality of aesthetic objects, the assumption of the mono-functionality of music, the paradigm of European classical music, and the spectatorialist perspective—do not provide the basis for an adequate understanding of musical improvisation. The essays calls for a more robust philosophical consideration of the gamut of improvisational activity, including the aesthetic aspects of musical improvisation, the range of musical and social skills made manifest by improvisers, and the deeper social meanings of the practice, including the implicit reference to human freedom and situated meanings that arise from the national, ethnic, racial, gendered, and socio-economic contexts in which the music arises. Such a view would be theoretically nuanced, empirically informed, phenomenologically sensitive, and ineliminably indexed to the manifold ways in which improvised music situates itself in the complex of human affairs.

scholarly journals Relationalism about Perception vs. Relationalism about Perceptuals

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-302
Author(s):  
Andrew Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Transcendental Idealism ◽  
Naive Realism ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Naïve Realism ◽  
Perceptual Property

AbstractThere is a tension at the heart of Lucy Allais’s new account of Kant’s transcendental idealism. The problem arises from her use of two incompatible theories in contemporary philosophy – relationalism about perception, or naïve realism, and relationalism about colour, or more generally relationalism about any such perceptual property. The problem is that the former requires a more robust form of realism about the properties of the objects of perception than can be accommodated in the partially idealistic framework of the latter. On Allais’s interpretation, Kant’s notorious attempt to balance realism and idealism remains unstable.

scholarly journals How We Live Now: “I Don't Think There's Such a Thing as Being Offline”

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Victoria Carrington
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

Background/Context Distinctions, real and conceptual, in being “online” or “offline” have featured heavily in the ways educational researchers have understood and approached research into the lives and practices of young people. Even as we argued that bridges must be built between “on” and “off,” our research has reflected a set of deeply entrenched metaphors about the Internet. Focus of Study This article takes a qualitative approach, using semistructured interviews and object ethnographies within a postphenomenological theoretical frame to explore how contemporary young people understand and experience “the Internet” and “online–offline” alongside their engagement with ubiquitous smartphones. Here, the article positions itself in the emerging new materialism studies alongside speculative realism and posthumanism, but with a particular focus on where the philosophy of technology known as postphenomenology can lead us in our thinking. Research Design The interviews described here were conducted in English and form part of a larger ongoing research project focused on understanding the impacts of mobile digital technologies on young people, including tracking shifts in the metaphors used to explain their everyday lives with digital media. To date, the project includes 41 surveys and a dozen semistructured interviews conducted in person in the United Kingdom and Europe, or, where necessary, via Skype and/or email. The interviews described here were conducted in person in 2015 in England. Analysis was conducted via critical discourse analysis and metaphor analysis. Conclusions The article demonstrates that our dated metaphors of online/offline are no longer fit for purpose when speaking about the activities, practices, beliefs, and priorities of these young women. The views of these young women are illuminating and challenging, and they pave the way for how we might usefully theorize the practices with text and technologies that they carry across different presences.

Alternative Online Videos in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

2011 ◽  
pp. 552-576
Author(s):  
Gooyong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Common People ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Online Videos ◽  
Critical Media ◽  
Sociopolitical Impact

This chapter examines a new form of popular political mobilization–online videos. Revising a “mix of attributes approach” to media effects (Eveland, 2003), grassroots participation is included as the Internet’s new attribute, which renders a more sociopolitical impact of the medium. Furthermore, to examine its sociopolitical impact, the author suggests a “multiple” mix of attributes approach, which considers extrinsic attributes of audiences’ media consumption contexts as well as intrinsic attributes of media configurations. In this regard, the author examines the grassroots participation attribute by interrogating how ordinary people participate in an online public sphere (www.dipdive.com) where they shared and reinforced their support for Obama by producing alternative videos. When it comes to the importance of individuals’ critical appropriation of the Internet for political participation, through alternative video production, the potential of transformative human agency by shaping personal narratives toward a better future is realized. In online videos for the Obama campaign, identity politics and the democratization of campaign leadership as extrinsic attributes are enhancing the Internet’s network politics for political mobilization. Nevertheless, there is ambivalence of online video’s practical impact on society depending on each user’s specific motivations and objectives of using it as seen in many cases of destructive, anti-social deployment of the Internet throughout the globe. Therefore, as an educational initiative to implement the multiple mixes of media attributes approach, this chapter concludes by proclaiming that it is a crucial issue for critical pedagogy practitioners to envisage Feenberg’s (2002) “radical philosophy of technology” which demands individuals’ active intervention in shaping technologies’ social applications, as well as its redesign for a more egalitarian purposes. With critical media pedagogy as a premise of the strategic deployment of new media technologies for social change, common people can become leaders of democratic, grassroots political mobilization as well as active, popular pedagogues by producing alternative online videos.

scholarly journals The Features of Political Participation in Conditions of Information Society

wisdom ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Astghik Petrosyan
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Philosophical Consideration ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
The Impact

In the 21st century the Internet and information technologies form new opportunities for political participation. The Internet wide coverage has created unprecedented opportunities for dissemination of information on social-political processes, for enlargement of the aware sector and for their active involvement in social-political processes. Use of the Internet in politics leads to the evolution of the conventional model of political participation, thus, securing the impact of broad masses on the political decision-making processes. Political Internet participation makes it possible to overcome such obstacles as time and distance. The political discourse that had acquired features of horizontal communication is turning into a multi-component, multi-lateral model of interactive communication. The article presents the role and influence of the Internet and means of electronic communication on political ongoings and participatory processes. An analysis is given on the role of the Internet and information technologies in the revolutionary events and power turnover processes of 2018 in Armenia. The author come to the conclusion that neutralization of abuses and risks of the opportunities given by continually developing technologies, supposes not only philosophical consideration but also moral and legal studies and practical mechanisms.

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