Product Description

Technology, Time and the Conversations of Modernity takes as its impetus the idea that technology is an embodiment of our uneasiness with finitude. Lorenzo Simpson shows how technology has succeeded in granting our wish to domesticate time. He addresses the consequences of this attitude for our self-understanding and for our ability to discover differences and discern meaning in our lives. By confronting issues raised in the various theoretical discourses concerning modernity with those engendered by a critical assessment of technology, Simpson elaborates a systematic critique of technological rationality. In the course of this, he provides a critique of philosophical nihilism, an account of the affinities between postmodern sensibilities and the technological attitude toward the world - illustrated by a discussion of Virtual Reality technology - as well as critical discussion of the work of Rorty, Habermas, MacIntyre and Sabina Lovibond.

Product Details

• Published on: 1994-11-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
"This is an important book. Lorenzo Simpson has given us a tough-minded, cool-eyed, warm-hearted critique of the technological perspective and of the post-modernist response . . . extraordinarily rich in language and subtle in conception."
-Marx W. Wartofsky, Baruch College
"This book is an excellent contribution both to cultural theory and to substantive moral philosophy. Lorenzo Simpson offers a subtle and scholarly account of the eclipse of imminent by instrumental value in the 'postmodern' world; at the same time, his distinctive voice brings home to us how our lives are impoverished by this development and how we can resist it."
-Sabina Lovibond, Worcester College
"Lorenzo Simpson's major new work on technology, temporality, and ethics is clearly the product of wide reading and mature reflection. . . . His discussions of Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas, Rorty and a host of other major theorists are uniformly first-rate."
-Thomas McCarthy, Northwestern University

From the Back Cover
Technology, Time, and the Conversations of Modernity takes as its impetus the idea that technology is an embodiment of our uneasiness with finitude. Lorenzo Simpson arguest that technology has succeeded in granting our wish to domesticate time. He shows how this attitude affects our understanding of the meaning of action and our ability to discern meaning in our lives.

Simpson addresses the question of the price exacted by modernity in its scientific and technological guises; at the same time, he examines a number of critical responses that take measure of our modern or, arguably, postmodern condition. The book thus poses the question of technology in the context of a range of philosophical issues and themes, from hermeneutics and critical theory to neo-pragmatism, the rationality debates, narrative theory, and postmodernism.

Simpson's main aim is to elaborate a critique of technological rationality that does justice to our contemporary situation. In the course of this, he examines philosophical nihilism and the affinities between postmodern sensibilities and the technological attitude toward the world--illustrated by a discussion of Virtual Reality technology--as well as providing critical discussions of the work of Rorty, Habermas, and MacIntyre.

About the Author
Lorenzo C. Simpson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Richmond.