A Study On Mumford’s Thought Of "Megamachine"

After the philosophy of technology went through the status of historical "absence", people gradually began philosophically introspecting technology and formed two research approaches on the basis of it:Engineering Philosophy of Technology and Humanities Philosophy of Technology. As the founder of Humanities Philosophy of Technology, Lewis Mumford’s thoughts have important research value and effects in this field. In the field of the philosophy of technology, Mumford always thought over technological problems and human problems as a whole. His main research results can be concluded into the following three aspects:firstly, introspection about technology which is as core of modern technology-"Megamachine"; secondly, the stage thought of the history of technology, namely, dividing the history of technology into the eotechnic phase, the paleotechnic phase and the neotechnic phase; thirdly, the technological classification thought, namely, dividing technology into the polytechnics that orients life and the monotechnics that is far away from life. The thought of "Megamachine" is most important in these achievements. In the research process of the philosophy of technology, Mumford took the "Megamachine" thought as the core, carried out profound analyses and introspection on modern technology or "Megamachine" based on the relationship between technology and humanity. And according to these, he proposed the organic technological concept which means breaking the "mechanical myth" and returning to life.In view of theoretical value and practical significance of Mumford’s philosophy of technology, professionals and scholars at home and abroad are increasingly focused on his thoughts in recent years. This paper took Mumford’s "Megamachine" thought as the core, and connected it with the stage thought of the technological history and the technological classification thought. Starting from the perspective of technology and humanity, this paper carried out systematic analyses and philosophical introspection on the origin, the commencement and the essence of "Megamachine" in phenomenological perspective, historicist perspective and existentialist perspective, so as to reveal superficial characteristics of difficulties that it brought to human society. On the basis of it, this paper purposefully provided some new ideas for breaking the "mechanical myth" and deconstructing "Megamachine". In particular this paper can be mainly divided into the following parts.Chapter One is the preface of the whole paper. It mainly introduces the topic selection background and significance of this paper, present research situations relevant to thoughts of Mumford at home and abroad and this paper’s main research contents, research ideas, research methods and innovative points.Chapter Two elaborates the origin of Mumford’s philosophy of technology through brief introduction to Mumford’s life and academic experiences as well as the era background in which his thoughts about philosophy of technology were initiated.Chapter Three peels off the origin of "Megamachine" with the method of phenomenology, and restores two manifestations of "Megamachine":firstly, the embryo of "Megamachine" represented by ancient Egypt that was formed through comprehensive effects of astronomy, religion and royalty; secondly, evolvement or reconstruction of "Megamachine" marked by the "will to order" that was formed through comprehensive effects of monasteries, mechanical clocks and the capitalist economic system.Chapter Four mainly introduces the humanized alienation of "Megamachine" in the commencement process. Taking technology and humanism as cues, it connected Mumford’s "Megamachine" thought with the stage thought of the technological history, carried out dynamic analyses and longitudinal explanations of hibernation, reconstruction and dominance in the eotechnic phase, the paleotechnic phase and the neotechnic phase, so as to elaborate the manifestation and the degree of "Megamachine" in the humanized alienation.Chapter Five carries out metaphysical analyses on the essence of polytechnics and monotechnics from the perspective of existentialism on the basis of the transverse command of technology and humanism in view of the technological classification thought of Mumford. At the same time, it systematically introduces and elaborates the organic technological concept of deconstructing "Megamachine" and returning to life proposed by Mumford.Chapter Six mainly introduces the author’s philosophical introspection on the "Megamachine" thought, which includes the following two parts in detail. On the one hand, taking technology and humanism as cues, it reveals superficial characteristics of difficult positions that "Megamachine" brings to human society and human life through systematic analyses on the origin, the commencement and the essence of "Megamachine"; On the other hand, based on the above superficial characteristics of difficult positions, the author try to propose some new ideas for deconstructing "Megamachine" to make technology return to life with the guidance of Mumford’s organic technological concept.