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Ihde, D. (2009). Postphenomenology and Technoscience: The Peking University Lectures. State University of New York Press. Added by: alexb44 (4/14/26, 4:20 AM) Last edited by: alexb44 (5/12/26, 4:51 AM) |
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| Resource type: Book Language: en: English Published ID no. (ISBN etc.): 9781438426211 BibTeX citation key: Ihde2009 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Phenomenology, Philosophy, Technology Creators: Ihde, Langsdorf Publisher: State University of New York Press |
Views: 51/62
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| Abstract |
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A revised form of phenomenology, postphenomenology aims to overcome the limitations of subjectivism and its largely dystopian stance toward science and technology. Timely and insightful, this book provides a useful introduction to postphenomenology, asking how it can effectively transform classical phenomenology into a new and concrete reflection upon technoscience. Tracing the modern history of phenomenology, pragmatism, and philosophy of science, Don Ihde proposes a reframing of phenomenology to better suit today's contemporary world. An excellent overview of the recent history of the philosophy of science, Postphenomenology and Technoscience revitalizes conceptual frameworks that still have much to offer.
Added by: alexb44 Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard |
| Notes |
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This is "a minimal outline of what constitues postphenomenology" (p. 23).
Postphenomenology is a modified, hybrid phenomenology. Recognises the role of pragmatism, sees a way to avoid the problems and misunderstandings of phenomenology as a subjectivist philosophy, which could sometimes be taken as anti-scientific, locked into solipsism or idealism. From phenomenology, takes the rigorous style of analysis through variational theory, the deeper phenomenological understanding of embodiment and human active bodily perception, as well as a dynamic understanding of a lifeworld as an enrichment of pragmatism. Thirdly, looks to philosophy of technology as a way to probe and analyse the role of technologies in social, personal nad cultural life that can be undertaken by conrete, empirical studies of technologies (in the plural, meaning looking at specific technologies, and not technology uberhaupt (as one collective term of all tech.)) Added by: alexb44 Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard |
| Quotes |
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p. 32
"[...] science cannot escape the lifeworld, since it too must make all of its measurements perceivable to embodied humans, although it may do so through the mediations of measuring technologies or instruments."
Added by: alexb44
(5/8/26, 4:40 AM)
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p. 33
On tools (in reference to Heidegger)
"The “praxical” “knowledge” that Heidegger attributes to the manipulation of tools, equipment, is not “cognitive” but tacit—and, I would say, bodily."
Added by: alexb44
(5/8/26, 4:53 AM)
Comments:
Builds on Heideggers concept of tools and explains the tacit (bodily) aspect beyond the cognitive. Relates also to multistability - "what a tool is, is dependent upon a use context."(p.33) A tool or piece of equipment doesn't exist outside of the context in which it has use.
Furthermore, the "knowledge" that arises from a tool is not cognitive. "Phenomenologically, the material tool “withdraws,” or becomes “quasitransparent.” “The peculiarity of what is proximally ready-to-hand is that in its readiness-to-hand, it must, as it were, withdraw in order to be ready-to-hand quite authentically.”" (p.33) As tools withdraw something else is 'lit up' - Heidegger would say it reveals the "environing world" or "nature", Don Ihde would say lifeworld. Technologies mediate our way of experiencing a world. This is visible when tools break down: "which, in turn, helps us realize that “an equipment” belongs in certain ways to certain contexts. p.34" Added by: alexb44 (5/8/26, 4:54 AM) |
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p. 56
On perceiving phenomena through technological transformation - phenomenological hermeneutics
"I argue that we are not now in the realm of the “posthuman,” as some have proclaimed. Rather, we now have, with the new imaging, a different kind of human-technology-knowledge relation, a relation that I term embodied hermeneutic." [...] "What I am calling translation is a technological transformation of a phenomenon into a readable image. This is one analog to a hermeneutic process, except in this case it is a material hermeneutic process, not one limited to textual or linguistic phenomena. Second, because it is perceivable—usually in science’s favored visualist modes—it also is available to the gestalt capacities of human vision, which can “see at a glance” the patterns displayed. In this sense, it is a phenomenological hermeneutic. So rather than leaving embodiment, the new imaging produces for embodied observers a new way of bringing close something that is both spatially and perceptually “distant.” COMMENT: Not in "posthuman" era. It's simply a different type of human-tech-knowledge relation - the embodied hermeneutic. Phenomenological hermeneutic is when a technological transformation (a translation) of a phenomenon is made into a readable (perceivable) image. Analog to hermeneutic process but material, so not just text or lingustic. As such it's available to the gestalt capacities of human vision. E.g. seeing your unborn child through an ultrascound scan .
Added by: alexb44
(5/8/26, 4:44 AM)
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p. 60
"With modern astronomy, beginning with the seventeenth century, there occurred a technoscientific revolution, one embedded in the invention of lens optics. Here the variables change. There is a qualitative change, in that human vision becomes “eyeball-plus-optics,” which transforms the phenomenological space-time of observation through magnification and other optical effects. Now what was previously unseeable with the naked eye becomes visible through mediating lenses. But it remains isomorphic with eyeball vision, to the extent that it is what one would see if one were literally spatially placed at the apparent distance that the lens focus allows. It remains strictly analog in that it is what would be seen if the viewer were literally in the position that the lens phenomenologically yields."
Added by: alexb44
(5/12/26, 4:01 AM)
Comments:
Lens optics still analog - the lens 'teleports' its user closer to the target by transforming the phenomenological space-time of observation.
Added by: alexb44
(5/12/26, 4:01 AM)
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p. 61
"It [new tech to interrogate radiation (or generally nondirectly perceivable phenomena)] is no longer analog—except through technologically constructed translations. But I argue that it remains “realist” if by this is meant that a sensor device only operates if it actually detects some emission, but at the same time it is both a constructed and an intervening process that is deliberate and designed. It brings into presence previously unknown phenomena, but it does so by what I have called a hermeneutic process, by translating what is detected into images that can be seen and read by embodied observers. The embodiment of observers is thus an invariant in science."
[...] "In astronomy, these may be thought of as instrumental embodiments. Human perception is transformed in each new technological development, situated and placed differently, but implied by each technological context."
Added by: alexb44
(5/12/26, 4:08 AM)
Comments:
There is a distance in phenomenology from the previous quote. The embodied observer can make sense of this through a hermeneutic process by translating what is detected into images, but it is not readily perceivable like with lens optics. Can think of them as instrumental embodiments, as the contexts of tech change how and what we can perceive, directly or not.
Added by: alexb44
(5/12/26, 4:09 AM)
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