Technology and Isolation

Combining classic philosophical ideas with groundbreaking recent developments in ontology, Lawson proposes a new ontology of technology, spanning several disciplines.

Clive Lawson (Author)

9781316632352, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 March 2018

242 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'Clive Lawson's book Technology and Isolation provides a timely and innovative study of the influence of technology on society. Lawson brings a sense of perspective and clarity, based on wide-ranging reading of the many ways that technology has been considered. He does so from a philosophical point of view. Whilst many contemporary economists might be sceptical of such an approach, it is valuable in so far as it asks important fundamental questions that tend to be omitted because of the way economists are now socialised to think and research. Technology and Isolation rewards careful reading and deserves to become a standard point of reference.' Nuno Ornelas Martins, Real-World Economics Review

By reconsidering the theme of isolation in the philosophy of technology, and by drawing upon recent developments in social ontology, Lawson provides an account of technology that will be of interest and value to those working in a variety of different fields. Technology and Isolation includes chapters on the philosophy, history, sociology and economics of technology, and contributes to such diverse topics as the historical emergence of the term 'technology', the sociality of technology, the role of technology in social acceleration, the relationship between Marx and Heidegger, and the relationship between technology and those with autism. The central contribution of the book is to provide a new ontology of technology. In so doing, Lawson argues that much of the distinct character of technology can be explained or understood in terms of the dynamic that emerges from technology's peculiar constitutional mix of isolatable and non-isolatable components.

1. Technology questions
2. Technology - from obscurity to keyword
3. Ontology and isolation
4. Science and technology
5. The sociality of artefacts
6. Technological artefacts
7. Technology and the extension of human capabilities
8. Technology and instrumentalisation
9. Technology and autism
10. Technology, recombination and speed
11. Marx, Heidegger and technological neutrality.

Subject Areas: Technology: general issues [TB], Philosophy of science [PDA], Social theory [JHBA], Sociology [JHB], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ]