Publications

Earth, Technology, Language

Author(s)
Mark Coeckelbergh
Abstract

The empirical turn, understood as a turn to the artifact in the work of Ihde, has been a fruitful one, which has rightly abandoned what Serres and Latour call “the empire of signs” of the postmoderns. However, this has unfortunately implied too little attention for language and its relation to technology. The same can be said about the social dimension of technology use, which is largely neglected in postphenomenology. This talk critically responds to Ihde (mainly) and Stiegler, and sketches a Wittgensteinian inroad to a more holistic and transcendental revision of postphenomenology which does not turn away from the artifact but places it in a wider social context and asks the question regarding the relation between language and technology. Finally, since the earth may be the ultimate condition of possibility, it is asked what this language-sensitive and transcendental approach may imply for rethinking our human position and agency in the Anthropocene. The paper ends with pointing to the role of language as transcendental condition that shapes the very project of thinking the “Anthropocene.”

Organisation(s)
Department of Philosophy
Journal
Foundations of Science
Volume
27
Pages
259-270
No. of pages
12
ISSN
1233-1821
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-020-09730-9
Publication date
04-2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
603122 Philosophy of technology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General, History and Philosophy of Science
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/51e2f253-7f68-4d6d-8e6d-a30cdd5d14a6