Philosophy and/of Technology: A Reading list
Historical and Early Critical Perspectives
Phaedrus (The Myth of Theuth), Plato, (c. 370 BC)
An ancient critique of writing as a technology that threatens human memory and the pursuit of true wisdom.
The Blazing World, Margaret Cavendish, (1666)
A 17th-century text questioning the ability of scientific instruments to reveal a "truer" reality than the senses.
Elements of a Philosophy of Technology, Ernst Kapp, (1877)
Introduces "organ projection," which is the theory that all tools are evolutionary extensions of human biological organs.
Technics and Civilisation, Lewis Mumford, (1934)
Explores technology as a "polytechnic" phenomenon that must be integrated into human life rather than dominating it.
Existentialism, Marxism, and Power
The German Ideology / Fragment on Machines, Karl Marx, (1932/1953)
Early Marxist views on how the "forces of production" (technology) determine the social and mental life of humans.
The Mystery of Being, Gabriel Marcel, (1951)
A classic existentialist warning that technology can "annihilate the self" by reducing humans to mere functions within a system.
The Question Concerning Technology, Martin Heidegger, (1954)
Argues that modern technology is an "Enframing" that reduces the world to a "standing reserve" of resources.
Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault, (1975)
While focused on prisons, it provides the essential framework for understanding the "Panopticon" of modern digital surveillance and conceptions of power in contemporary society.
Media Theory and Epistemology
Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan, (1964)
Famously stated "the medium is the message," arguing that the technology itself, not the content, reshapes human perception.
Against Method, Paul Feyerabend, (1975)
Challenges the perceived neutrality of technical and scientific systems, arguing that a rigid adherence to single methodologies can be intellectually and socially oppressive.
Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, (1981)
Explores how digital media creates "hyperreality," where simulations of the real replace the real itself.
Technical Objects and Artificial Intelligence
Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing, (1950)
Proposes the Turing Test, shifting the question of machine "thought" from essence to observable behaviour.
On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, Gilbert Simondon, (1958)
Argues that technical objects have their own evolutionary logic that humans must learn to respect.
A Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway, (1985)
Uses the cyborg metaphor to challenge traditional boundaries between human, animal, machine, and gender.
Ethics, Virtue, and Human Nature
The Case Against Perfection, Michael Sandel, (2007)
A critique of genetic engineering, arguing that the drive for "perfection" erodes our appreciation for the giftedness of life.
Our Posthuman Future, Francis Fukuyama, (2002)
Warns that biotechnology could fundamentally alter human nature and, consequently, the foundations of liberal democracy.
Technology and the Virtues, Shannon Vallor, (2016)
Integrates Aristotelian and Confucian virtue ethics to ask how we can cultivate the character traits necessary to live with technology.
Politics, Culture, and Contemporary Life
The Whale and the Reactor / Do Artefacts Have Politics?, Langdon Winner, (1980/1986)
Argues that technological systems inherently embody and enforce specific social and political values.
Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, Albert Borgmann, (1984)
Distinguishes between "focal things" that demand engagement and "devices" that prioritise effortless consumption.
The Question Concerning Technology in China, Yuk Hui, (2016)
Introduces "Cosmotechnics," the idea that technology is shaped by a culture’s specific moral and cosmic order.
The Digital Age and Surveillance
The 4th Revolution, Luciano Floridi, (2014)
Examines the "infosphere" and how the blurring of online and offline lives is reshaping our fundamental reality.
The Glass Cage, Nicholas Carr, (2014)
Investigates how automation and digital immersion can lead to "cognitive atrophy" and the loss of practical human skills.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, (2019)
Details how technology turns private human experience into behavioural data for market control.
