The History and Philosophy of Technology by George Bugliarello; Dean B.

Doner
Review by: Bertram Morris
Technology and Culture, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Jul., 1980), pp. 534-538
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for the History of Technology
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534 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE

The History and Philosophyof Technology.Edited by George Bugliarello

and Dean B. Doner. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1979. Pp. xxxi+384. $17.50.
Editors Bugliarello and Doner have put together in this volume
some twenty-three essays on the history and philosophy of technol-
ogy, originally part of a 1973 international symposium at the Univer-
sity of Illinois at Chicago Circle. Although there is no central theme,
the point of view of each of the essayists comes out as a form of com-
mitted humanism. The predominant humanistic outlook is historical,
an attempt to assert a continuity from a living past to a potential for
human understanding, if not betterment. Perhaps not coincidentally,
the philosophical essays tend to merge into historical studies. The in-
troduction to this volume by Melvin Kranzberg makes a plea for the
convergence of history with the philosophy of technology. He de-
plores the continuance of historical works that regard technology sep-
arately from its larger social context. Equally, he deplores the philo-
sophical preoccupation that "bog[s] down in a morass of definitional
problems without ever reaching the major battle-ground where the
clash of ideas must take place" (p. xxv). He insists that more innova-
tive and daring ways of writing history and philosophy need to be
sought. Although the editors group the historical essays apart from
the philosophical, actually the line between the two is blurred. Fol-
lowing the table of contents, I shall begin with the predominantly
historical essays and then turn to the philosophical ones. The former
may conveniently be classified as (a) technologically based, (b) nation-
ality oriented, and (c) otherwise contextually conceived.
Arthur L. Donovan writes a vivid story of the relationship of the
engineer and the scientist, employing Watt's conception of the sepa-
rate condenser. Reflecting the assertion that Watt merely applied
Joseph Black's theory of latent heat to the steam engine, he discerns in
Glasgow a union of theory and practice, of the scientist and the en-
gineer, such as to effect "the happy integration of technology, society,
and culture" (p. 29). Attacking the related question of division of
labor between the engineer and historian, Bugliarello calls for the
engineer to be designer and planner, while the historian better serves
as interpreter and writer of technology.
Harold L. Burstyn succinctly states the dilemma of the historian to
be (1) to make the present appear to be the plausible outcome of the
past, and (2) to be as accurate as one can when one assesses what
happened. Acknowledging Donovan's thesis, Burstyn employs Watt's
invention of the separate condenser as a triumph of the interplay
between science and technology. In examples from Whitney's cotton
gin, Pasteur's technique for sterilizing fluid, and from the role of
fertilizers in agriculture, he shows the need for accuracy in establish-
ing the continuity of history. He insists: "In an age increasingly secu-
lar, the continuities of human history are all we have to cling to" (p.

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TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 535

59). Donald S. L. Cardwell, too, proposes to write history from the

role of technology and its interplay with science. Wedded to the
Baconian view of science, he starts from the questions of inventions
and process, asking in each case: "Did it work? how did it work? how
well did it work?" (p. 11). Referring to the need for accurately distin-
guishing the ideas of force, energy, and power, he agrees with Clerk
Maxwell that the new language is indebted to the increasing im-
portance of machine technology.
Two interesting essays are based largely on metallurgical data. Cyril
Stanley Smith charmingly remarks upon the earliest use of metals as
being devoted primarily to the "useless" and as providing decorative
and ornamental arts. So far from accepting necessity as the mother of
invention, he finds the source of invention in man's enjoyment of
"using his fingers, eyes, muscles, and mind to make discoveries . . ."
(p. 33). In a perceptive and fascinating elaboration of metallurgy and
allied arts, Heather Lectman and Arthur Steinberg, treating their
subject as anthropologists, argue from archeological remains to the
need for scientific research to show how metals were used-and mis-
used. By impressive examples, such as that of a so-called iron age that
really employs bronze-age techniques, the authors underscore the
need for a more rigorous study of the cultural history of a people.
Technology thus becomes "a rich resource in the study of culture . . .
and can be helpful in evaluating cultural idiosyncracies as well as the
more universal elements .. ." (p. 157).
Technological history written from the point of view of nationalities
provides challenges to the mainstream. E-tu Zen Sun writes concern-
ing modern technological analyses of traditional Chinese practical
arts, historical accounts of them-especially in agriculture, the
plow, ceramics, and medicine-and the need for "the formation of
modern ecumenical science and technology" (p. 47). Commenting on
German-speaking countries, Werner Koenne laments the division in
higher education between the practical arts and classical education.
He looks optimistically to the breakdown of the tradition. With a
French flavor, Jean-Claude Beaune anticipates a new encyclopedia of
technology, global in scale. Rationalistic in character, transcending
Diderot's masterpiece, and even Leibniz's universalism, he forsees an
axiomatized technology, not marred by reductionism, yet adequate to
the complexities of the most recent technology.
Although some efforts are made to treat the history of technology
as an independent discipline, they are doomed to failure. Most of the
essays interpret their questions in contexts, and wider than that of an
interplay of science and technology. In response to the question,
What should we ask of the history of technology, Steve M. Slaby calls
for a repudiation of the status quo, together with its underpinning in
corporate power supported by government. Consequently, he advises
academics who approach the question to "acquire that independence
which is crucial to true free inquiry, critical analysis, and wisdom."

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536 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE

Accordingly, they can become responsible "to humanity, rather than

to a national state ..." (p. 126). David Joravsky responds to a similar
question by observing that, while technology is corrupted by being
subservient to political power, especially as it was in Stalin's Russia, it is
similarly corrupted by that power in other countries that combine it
with wealth. His conclusion concerning learning and intelligence as a
virtue consequently remains ambiguous.
The most direct assertion of the convergence of history and philos-
ophy of technology is found in Ion Curievici's brief but forthright
Marxist statement. He insists that technology is more than ideas: "If
... a history were only the history of technical ideas ... it would be
essentially incomprehensible ... [I]t is essentially the history of the
relationship between technology and society" (p. 34). Marx, in
addressing the topic, understood technology as a means of produc-
tion. History must address itself, Curievici observes, to the larger topic
of the changes in the relations of production, in which alone can be
realized the humanistic components of history-and of philosophy.
Contextual theories of technology short of a comprehensive theory
of society may be sought in myth, in economics, and in politics-all are
represented in this volume. Myth is translated interestingly enough
into metaphor by David Edge. Metaphors, he declares, provide an-
swers to preexisting questions and they also restructure our percep-
tion of a situation. He, along with David Wojick, employs Kuhn's doc-
trine of the "paradigm" to provide the link between society and
technology.
The non-Marxist economic aspect of technology is treated by
Nathan Rosenberg, who reveals shortcomings of market economy in
coping with policy matters for producing optimal amounts of com-
modities which are "tinged with varying degrees of publicness" (p.
93).
Rejecting Ellul's theory of technological determinism, Frances
Svensson and Henryk Skolimowsky look to political theory and a
philosophy of man, respectively, for seeking a proper context for
understanding technology. Both criticize efficiency as a proper value
for achieving viable technological ends in society. While castigating a
theory of means to ends, which in turn can be only continually fol-
lowed by other means to ends, Svensson unfortunately misinterprets
Abraham Kaplan's statement of John Dewey's theory of means-ends.
Consequently, by disjointing means and ends she rejects a viable
theory of the possibility of intrinsic values contained in the means-end
process. Not surprising, then, she appeals to a transcendental theory
of man in which "autonomous political thinking" (p. 296), becomes
the source for validating technological policies. Similar criticisms of
technology are made by Skolimowsky. He resorts to a blistering attack
on a puerile definition of progress, identified as efficiency in produc-
ing more goods and as employing technology to set aright the di-
sasters it has created. To achieve more humane results, he suggests

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TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 537
the need to take into account a plurality of life-styles, including
contributions from Oriental and American Indian cultures.
Three essays are paramount in approaching the question of the
philosophy of technology: Carl Mitcham's, Peter Caws's and Mario
Bunge's.
Mitcham develops his theme through an impeccable history of
philosophical analyses of technology. Distinguishing among analyt-
ical, social, and philosophical histories of technology, he pursues the
last, taking Plato and Aristotle for his starting point. He first con-
centrates upon the idea of techne, finding that, despite differences,
Plato and Aristotle agree upon its logical character derived from the
process of making and producing. The thrust of the argument, espe-
cially Aristotle's, rests on the potency of matter to become form, "or-
dered toward something higher" (p. 187). The practice of technology
is thus to achieve form. With variations, Mitcham carries the theme
through medieval thought. The break with medievalism appears with
the development of physical science and its philosophical formulation
in Descartes's dualism of matter and spirit, a pure, lifeless extension,
and a contrasting nonextended substance, the essence of which is
consciousness. Mitcham concludes that the modern period "invites a
triumphalist philosophy of technology" (p. 189).
Caws confines his elegant essay to the topic of praxis and techne. His
theme is that technology "is the practical arts themselves regarded as
an activity of reason . ." (p. 227). Contrasting the Greek emphasis on
truth with modern values excepting truth and referring to Mao
Tse-tung's theory of practice cum theory cum practice as a significant
formulation of the theory of technology, Caws denies any priority of
theory or practice. Rather, he insists, the relation is "dialectical in the
strict sense" (p. 229).
Finally, Bunge's essay proposes the metaphysic, epistemology, and
axiology of technology. Things exist; they are capable of being
known, and human beings can make things better through technol-
ogy. Different from science, yet interrelated to it, technology as a
creative component plays a central role in modern intellectual culture.
The last section of the volume briefly addresses the question of the
future of technology. In an essay on fashions of thought and velocity
of technological change, Raphael L6pez Palanco spiritedly comments
on historical fashions of treating architecture and manners, decora-
tion and etiquette, and at the same time he dilates on the "dizzying
speed, the appalling increase in velocity of [technological] change" (p.
345). He vividly illustrates his comments by the application of the
computer to "the method of structural analysis" (p. 356). He con-
cludes that we must adapt to the velocity of change or disappear.
Whimsically analyzing "the philosophy of future technology" (p. 356),
Heinz Von Foerster forays into the psychology of schizophrenia and
suggests a psychopathology of the present state of technology. Finally,
Iraj Zandi, sensitive to the positive and negative effects of technology

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538 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE

on society, rejects simplistic proposals for either junking or

wholeheartedly embracing modern technology. Historians and
philosophers too often look to ancient models for guiding the present,
thus missing the concrete problems engineers must face. The en-
gineers' calling requires them "to act, to design, to build, to alter
nature, to attempt to expand the physical variety of human life and
enrich the possibilities of human experience" (p. 377). Zandi insists on
an empirical approach to the future, setting goals and employing the
tools that create devices and facilities to aid, not private man, but
society in the business of living.
The editors of this volume have done a fine job of putting together
these essays, each of which is a gem and, as such, deserves inclusion.
There are, however, a few lacunae. There might, for example, have
been some attention to the contemporary problems of technology in
the Third World. Additionally, the volume could have been further
enhanced by an elaboration of the role of the institutions of expres-
sion in the modern world and their interrelations with our
technological commitments. Such additions could have pointed up
the need for paying attention to the peaceful arts and to the cultural
demands that require resolution of the dilemmas of war and peace.
The University of Illinois Press provides a dazzling dust jacket de-
signed to produce geometrical optical illusions. Although the design is
in keeping with the vibrancy of the essays, the press might have in-
sisted on the inclusion of an index, that the reader, overawed by the
confusion of riches, could better focus on and mull over some of the
many topics that run throughout the various essays.
BERTRAM MORRIS*

The Rise of SystemsTheory:An IdeologicalAnalysis. By Robert Lilienfeld.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978. Pp. 292. $19.95.
Robert Lilienfeld's main objective in his book The Rise of Systems
Theory:An IdeologicalAnalysis is to demonstrate that systems theorists,
in their "missionary" zeal to apply their concepts and methodologies
to philosophical and social issues and discplines, have failed. Indeed,
Lilienfeld criticizes the very attempt, claiming that it "echoes the
positivism of Auguste Comte with a decoration of formal and mathe-
matical terminology" (p. 3). He regards systems theory as a newly
emergent ideology that needs to be exposed as, at best, inadequate
and, at worst, ill-conceived when taken out of its information-
processing context.
Without ever really defining the amorphous term "systems theory,"
Lilienfeld describes it as not one discipline but as an interrelationship
*DR. MORRISis professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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