| This paper mainly introduces the technical essence view of Feenberg’s. Firstly, the paper stated the source problem of theories about the technical essence view of Feenberg, which had a grasp of the whole view; the Feenberg’s technical thought had profound influence which mainly included Heidegger the Frankfurt School of Herbert Marcuse and American pragmatism, so Feenberg’s idea had diversified development trend. Secondly, Feenberg criticized traditional theory rationally, then mainly attributed into two categorists of the traditional theory: the instrumental theory of technology and the entity theory of technology. The instrumental theory of technology thought that the technology is a service tool and didn’t contain values and just as a simple tool, so it showed a absolutely "neutral". In other words, the technology can keep the same efficiency standard in any environments. The entity theory of technology thought that the technology is not only a simply useful tool, but also developed into a kind of independent cultural force, technology become the "mandate of heaven". Feenberg argued that although the instrumental theory of technology and the entity theory of technology had different view, the two also had similarities, which means the technology can’t change and the technology innovated by its own internal logic. In the critical technology based, Feenberg proposed the essence of technology is "the instrumental theory", and it included primary instrumentalization and secondary instrumentalization. The primary instrumentalization of theory thought technology is from the original situation which have been extracted, then become a mere tool as use, and is no longer having social value; and in the secondary instrumentalization of theory thought technology has been given the new social situation, which means another new process of sociology, in other words the technology been redesigned. In order to understand these view, Feenberg divided integrity, change and the pluralistic nature of technology into three aspect carried on the detailed interpretation, so this view become more nature, more clear, and easy to understand.Generally speaking,the essence of technology Feenberg’s view is a kind of change, practical innovation, philosophy. It has both positive sides. However, Feenberg’s technical essence also many questionable places, for example, he did not clarify the development direction of the future philosophy of technology, did not completely get rid of the influence of ideological essence of the traditional technology and handling of his philosophy of technology in real life is not strong, and the compromise attitude. Study on Feenberg’s philosophy of technology will continue to deepening. |
