Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry

by Albert Borgmann

Blending social analysis and philosophy, Albert Borgmann maintains that technology creates a controlling pattern in our lives. This pattern, discernible even in such an inconspicuous action as switching on a stereo, has global it sharply divides life into labor and leisure, it sustains the industrial democracies, and it fosters the view that the earth itself is a technological device. He argues that technology has served us as well in conquering hunger and disease, but that when we turn to it for richer experiences, it leads instead to a life dominated by effortless and thoughtless consumption. Borgmann does not reject technology but calls for public conversation about the nature of the good life. He counsels us to make room in a technological age for matters of ultimate concern—things and practices that engage us in their own right.

Genres: Philosophy, Technology, Nonfiction, Cultural, Science, Sociology, Reference

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borgmann was a student of Martin Heidegger, and he here takes up the question of modern technology following in the footsteps of his teacher, but offering a more hopeful vision for the future. Even though the book was written in 1984 Borgmann's analysis was prescient and insightful enough that it still feels relevant and helpful in the 21st century. His proposal of recognition and restraint of what he calls the "device paradigm" is not rooted in nostalgia but in an honest evaluation of modern society.

Borgmann's treatment of hearths and heaters, eating and running are both beautiful and compelling. His description of nature as an aging parent beautiful to mature humanity in her fragility even as she was in her power was also quite moving.

Certainly the work has its flaws - imprecision of terms and a failure to adequately address some of the political and justice issues he raises are the two that I noticed most often - but it's an excellent work, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the way technology shapes our worldview.

[Jasonlylescampbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review would be a number of pages ... so I will simply limit it to insights gleaned from the last chapter (only four pages long).

AMERICA would do well to listen up. We are a country founded upon the industrial revolution ... much of our success and failure is surely timing ... being born in post Enlightenment and poised for a full blown technological pursuit. Technology has always promised liberty and prosperity ... irradication of hunger and illiteracy, equality for all, the end of drudgery and increase of leisure and personal time. But this brilliant promise has not succeeded "despite two centuries of gigantic effort. The technological measures that have freed us from hunger, disease, and illiteracy" have become part of the invisible periphery of life ... but, "the commodities that fill the center of our lives with entertainment and diversion" offer only passing and shallow gratification. We are, justifiably, proud of the intricacy and power of our technology, but this confidence about the means does not continue when we consider the ends. What are we producing?

"Medical technology provides healing and wholeness where otherwise there would be insufferable pain and crippling disfiguration. Media technology allows us to consider all things and to be enlightened about the world in an intelligent and compassionate way. But once restored to health and well informed, we are now able to take up life." But what kind of life? "Can engineers, managers, lawyers, and all the other members of technostructure be content in their work if they must admit that it serves a life that often is ruled at its center by triviality and frivolity?" Are we content producing healthy fools and trivial intellectuals? This is our problem.

Maybe the largest and most consuming argument of this book is that post-Enlightenment when we cast off any kind of divine center (and you have to travel through much of history to find any where without a divine center ... maybe the few intelligencia of ancient Rome) ... we found no center. Liberal democracy demands that we leave any definitions of life up for personal choice. So there is no public discourse in what defines "the good life." What is an appropriate center for our lives? What is the right content to make us proud at the end of our days?

What Borgmann speaks generally about is focal practices. Engagement with things as opposed to commodities. The two he spends the most time on is running (jogging) and the culture of the table (feasting). Regular engagement with the world that involves your whole body, the seasons of the earth, the local world in which you live ... this is helping us toward an appropriate center. These are things that test our limits and require the slow development of skill and discipline and the real engagement with our world.

[JosephTheBald]

I always thought that name-brand clothes were a bit gouache. It evoked images of a walking billboard, a walking advertisement; it was like walking around in a company uniform and being proud of the "individuality" that set you apart from the rest of the plebians. It seemed to me that the ultimate attainment of individuality could only be derived from an individual fashioning their own clothes. Albert Borgmann's Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life is concerned with certain aspects of my disdain towards the tastelessness of commodities. He argues that while technology may have freed us from the perils of nature, it also displaces focal points that used to ground us in reality. Instead of liberating us, technology has alienated and displaced communities from the functions that used to make life meaningful. His most popular example is that of the fire hearth in times of yore. The hearth wasn't only seen as a means to an end, the means were inextricably linked to the community. Now, with the modern conveniences of a centralized heating system for a house, this dissolves whatever social, traditional, and cultural tethers that may have grounded the individual to reality. The distinction is made between a "thing" and a "device." A "thing" is an object that cannot be stripped from its context, while a "device" decontextualizes an object out of a social framework and obscures its machinery into convenient spaces to make it both consumable and dispensable.

So what are the stakes? Borgmann is critiquing the modernist idea that technology leads the way to liberation: he critiques Liberal Democracies, which by the basis of their philosophical foundations cannot enforce moral change and as a consequence, allows the technological drive to direct society toward a utopian promise of liberation and fulfillment through the production and consumption of commodities; he critiques the Marxist view of technology which in certain respects waivers between the simplistic instrumentalist view of technology and determinism. Most of all, he is concerned about the loss of the ability to exercise excellence in the Aristotelian sense. The device paradigm and the consumption of commodities replace the need to interact with the world in any meaningful way, causing our value and social structures to atrophy. The "culture of the table" with its hard work, social communion, and cultural traditions is replaced by ready-to-eat dinner meals; running becomes an activity to maintain the body from corpulence rather than a pursuit to stretch the mind and body; artisanship is replaced by exchangeable human components; political participation becomes nonexistent; the wilderness becomes a commodity to exploit rather than a thing to appreciate and preserve for its own sake; the happiness promised by technology plateaus and declines though the standard of living rises; technological liberation ends with technological boredom; the means become subservient to the ends and the promise of the liberation becomes disengagement from reality.

Borgmann proposes focal points as the way by which we can refocus our ends to ultimate goals and meaningful ends. Borgmann allows for the plurality of focal points, refraining from making any definite prescriptions (as he should), but centering them on the Aristotelian Principle and ethics where the exercise of reason leads to a virtuous and excellent life. This means democratically restructuring the economy in such as a way to preserve work practices that prioritize focal practices in small local communities while also allowing for the centralized automated production of crucial commodities.

My review and notes are not comprehensive. There are many details and concepts which in subsequent readings will illuminate more of Borgmann's points. If you want to get the gist of Borgmann's thesis, read section 2 and particularly, chapter 9, "The Device Paradigm."

Edit 5/21/2023: RIP Borgmann who died on the 7th of May 2023.

My noteshttps://drive.google.com/file/d/16rTHHRMlHosCPVJpgm0FzZZ4MqFzpOGh/view?usp=sharing

[Bryan Kibbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A extraordinary analysis of modern technology. Although tedious at times, Borgmann lays down an important extended analysis of the way in which modern technologies eclipse human flourishing, though his critique is not that of a simple reactionary. Instead, Borgmann in a particularly profound insight recognizes that putting technology in its proper place allows us to more fully grasp the wonder and value of technology. In short Borgmann, aims to restore the colorful vibrancy of the modern world through calls for self reflective engagement with what he terms focal things and practices where otherwise ubiquitous technology that offers immediate gratification in the form of commodities mutes the world to a dull, static gray.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this booking hoping to understand one main thing:
how does the introduction of a technology into one's life/environment cause a change in that person. the technology invites a particular mode of usage, and excludes others. it is a profound design choice, a carefully scripted user-experience story. it cements a behavior as long as it is in usage.

the book slightly decries and laments the lost benefits that technology removes. he examples heating and air conditioning. whereas one used to gather wood and the task structured one's life, brought one mentally present into the task of heating, now with automated systems and energy coming from the grid - we forget the task of heating. we are comfortable and we lose appreciation as it doesn't bring itself to our minds. there is no hearth in a home anymore, it doesn't organize social interaction among those who dwell there now. (in an extended manner the hearth and the kitchen used to be synonymous, it was where we cooked. still today the kitchen draws us all together, but people eating independently - because food prep is so easy - causes us to miss something fundamental).
Borgmann also points to surprising habit of people going camping and specifically avoiding bringing technological gadgets with them. is it just an issue of battery life? no, because in some ways going to nature is thought of as a purification process. and technology so often is thought of as the anti-thesis of purification.

i enjoyed the book. as an extended meditation on the profound reshaping of our world that technology causes, i think i've only barely begun to establish a framework to understand it.

[Tien-Hsin]

Contents: *part I am interested.

Part one. The problem of technology
* technology and theory CH1
* theories of technology CH2

Part two. The character of technology
* the foreground of technology CH10
* the stability of technology CH19

Part three. The reform of technology
* deictic discourse CH21
* focal things and practices CH23
* the recovery of the promise of technology CH26

[Isaac Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

that was, something. not totally sure why I spent 6 months slogging through this, sometimes felt like a train of thought. but sometimes very insightful! what is technology if not an enabler to do only more what we enjoy, and come more to the greater good. if only~ perhaps one day

[Roy Kenagy]

Mentioned as key work: https://pocket.co/share/40de90a9-263a...

ACADEMICS ONLY

[Matt Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

mainly a source for the thesis . . his main idea is hard to deny: technology has taken us from "focal things and practices" . .yes . . after that, it's all just academic posturing, wordiness, etc. . . still very worthwhile - - best understood for me in a spiritual context, which context becomes our "focal thing/practice" . . for the thesis, i'll try getting at writing/storytelling as focal for self . . edit as of 7-11: for how this ended up impacting my thesis, read it at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&am... . . also, for my specific take on the entirety of this book, see the page i created at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technolo...

[Megan Mcdowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dense and difficult to sum up here, but full of provocative ideas, as well as arguments that will confirm things that you've probably felt intuitively but didn't rationalize, regarding the importance of nature, and what Borgmann calls "focal concerns."

[Ryan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant theories but not written in a way that's easily accessible. His other books are more understandable, but this one lays the groundwork.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to give up this book. It is really hard to read and I admit that I am unable to motivate myself to finish reading it. I will try some time later:)

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and penetrating analysis, very helpful .