Philosophy of technology is an effort to develop a theoretical understanding of today’s complex world of technology. One of the primary aims of technology education is to help young people to develop such an understanding. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to expect that philosophy of technology has something to offer for technology education. This is the assumption on which our book is based. We believe that philosophers of technology have developed insights that can help technology educators rethink the goals of technology education, the content of curricula, the teaching methods and the way to assess its outcomes.
We are not the first to publish a book in which philosophy of technology is connected to technology education. What is new in our book is that we have done it by focusing on individual philosophers rather than broad themes. In each chapter there are two parts. In the first part the overall oeuvre of the philosopher is discussed. In the second part the way the ideas developed by the philosopher have been or still can be made fruitful for technology education.
Philosophy of technology is nowadays a well-established discipline in which many people work. We had to make a choice for this book. It is evident that there is no gender balance in our selection. Only male philosophers are in it. This is not due to a bias on our side, but to the fact that all philosophers of technology of name and fame are male. Whether this has to do with the male domination in most of technology itself or due to the fact that the discipline systematically ignores the work of its female members is something that we cannot even begin to speculate on. It is a fact of life and we had to deal with it. Another unbalance is that we have a higher percentage of French philosophers in our selection than the actual population of philosophers of technology would justify. This, however, was a conscious decision, because in previous books on philosophy of technology for technology educators, the French philosophers were underrepresented. There is a practical reason for that: many of their writings are available in French only. We made an effort to open up the possibility to get to know their work – which often is highly original and thought-provoking – in this book.
We hope that readers of this book will appreciate the work of the philosophers we included in this selection and recognize the importance of taking into account their ideas when putting together technology education programs and activities. Technology education is no longer the craft-oriented school subject that it used to be in the past. Thanks to philosophy of technology, there is a sound theoretical basis for it and it is crucial for the future of the subject that we build upon that foundation. It is extremely important that young people learn to give technology a proper place in their lives and for that a good insight into the nature of technology and its relations to humans and society is indispensable. Therefore we simply cannot afford to leave precious material in philosophy of technology unused. It is our hope that this book may contribute to the philosophy of technology having a healthy impact on technology education.
We want to thank all authors who were prepared to work with us and contribute to this book. Thanks also to Peter de Liefde, who accepted our proposal to write this book, and to the Brill | Sense people who made this book into what it is now.