Technology, Pessimism, and Postmodernism
HOWARD P. SEGAL, FOR THE EDITORS In November 1979 the Humanities Department of the University of Michi gan's College of Engineering sponsored a symposium on ''Technology and Pessimism. " The symposium included scholars from a variety of fields and carefu
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Sociology of the Sciences A YEARBOOK - VOLUME XVII - 1993 Managing Editor:
R.D. Whitley, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester Editorial Board:
Y. Ezrahi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem B. Joerges, WZB, Berlin E. Mendelsohn, Harvard University Y. F. Murakami, University of Tokyo H. Nowotny, lnstitut flir Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsforschung, Vienna T. Shinn, Groupe d'Etude des Methodes de I'Analyse Sociologique, Paris P. Weingart, University of Bielefeld B. Wittrock, SCASSS, Uppsala
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
TECHNOLOGY, PESSIMISM, AND POSTMODERNISM Edited by
YARON EZRAHI
The Hebrew rJ.niversity of Jerusalem
EVERETI MENDELSOHN Harvard University. Cambridge
and
HOWARD SEGAL University of Maine. Orono
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-010-4379-3 ISBN 978-94-011-0876-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-0876-8
Printed on acid-free paper
AII Rights Reserved © 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1994 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vii
HOWARD P. SEGAL for the Editors / Technology, Pessimism, and Postmodernism: Introduction LEO MARX / The Idea of ''Technology'' and Postmodern Pessimism
11
YARON EZRAHI / Technology and the Illusion of the Escape from Politics
29
KLAUS REICHERT / Joseph Glanvill'sPlus Ultra and Beyond: Or How to Delay the Rise of Modern Science
39
IDO YAVETZ / A Victorian Thunderstorm: Lightning Protection and Technological Pessimism in the Nineteenth Century
53
MENAHEM BLONDHEIM / When Bad Things Happen to Good Technologies: Three Phases in the Diffusion and Perception of American Telegraphy
77
ROBERT B. PIPPIN / On the Notion of Technology as Ideology: Prospects
93
JEFFREY HERF / Belated Pessimism: Technology and Twentieth Century German Conservative Intellectuals
115
GABRIEL MOTZKlN / Time and Technology in Heidegger's Thought
137
EVERETT MENDELSOHN / The Politics of Pessimism: Science and Technology Circa 1968
151
HOWARD P. SEGAL / The Cultural Contradictions of High Tech: Or the Many Ironies of Contemporary Technological Optimism
175
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea for this volume gestated in a series of informal meetings held by the editors during the summer of 1989 when Professors Ezrahi and Segal were on the faculty of the Summer School at Harvard University. The Jerusalemffel Aviv site proposed by Ezrahi became possible when three Israel institutions agreed to become joint sponsors and the director of two of the institutions, Yehuda Elkana, joined in preparing for a conference of participants. Th
