A Study Of Modernity In Feenberg's Critical Theory Of Technology

Andrew Feenberg (1943～)is a well-known contemporary American philosopher of technology, who was a former student of Marcuse, one of the leading representatives of Frankfurt School. He is currently working at Simon Fraser University, Canada.By integrating the latest theoretical findings of Social Constructivism into the tradition of Critical Theory of Frankfurt School, Feenberg has put forward his own Critical Theory of Technology. He explains the multi-paths of the development of technology and its potentiality and in turn refuses technological determinism. Hence, he further refuses the deterministic view of Modernity by suggesting that another kind of Modernity can be realized through a sort of radical technological democratization. His Critical Theory of Technology offers us a brand-new perspective of the essence of technology and its relation with society, and bridges the speculative approach to the study of Modernity and the increasingly developed social studies of technology. This article closely investigates Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology and his understanding of Modernity, mainly including the following several aspects: 1. This study provided a brief review of Feenberg's academic background and the sources of his thoughts. First of all, he inherited the tradition of the Critical Theory of Frankfurt School, and also he was greatly influenced by American empiricism and pragmatism. Moreover, his theory has been developed against the background of the empirical turn of European-American philosophy of technology. 2. This article addressed himself to Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology and his understanding of modernity quite detailedly, pointed out that the social studies of technology has an important significance for the abstract study of modernity, and the abstract study of modernity must envisage the productions in the studies on technology. It is Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology makes us see the possibility of foreordination broken and dystopian modernity, and he also indicated a road leading to an Alternative Modernity. It's just the most importance of Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology.3. This article carried through a critical reflection on Feenberg's theory in an opposite direction, including both the meaning and the localization of his theory, as well as the difficulties to realize the alternative modernity. Finally discussed curtly the practical meaning of Critical Theory of Technology for the practice of current development in China.