Essay 1: 1000 words [Learning outcomes 1, 3]
Essay 2: 2000 words [Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3]

This module will focus on various aspects of the question of the relation between technology and the human. It aims to place the question of technology in a broader historical and philosophical framework, while addressing specific issues that distinguish the phenomenon of technology in modernity. To do this, it will examine questions such as the relation of modern technology to older forms of craft, conflicting interpretations of the impact of technology on modernity, the increasing extent to which technology pervades and modifies the human, the technological construction of reality and virtual reality, and the bearing of technology on knowledge and power. Examining these questions will involve working on a series of readings from the history of philosophy, with an emphasis on contemporary writing.

Teaching and learning will be delivered in a weekly workshop, involving tutor-led introductions, small group work and discussion of pre-arranged topics.

The principal text will be the anthology of key writings:

Philosophy of Technology, ed. Robert C Scharff & V Dusek (Blackwell, Oxford, 2003).

P T Durbin (ed), Technology and Responsibility (Riedel Publishing, Dordrecht, 1987)
D Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: the Reinvention of Nature (Routledge, London, 1991).
M Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology (Harper & Row, New York, 1977)
H Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility: in search of an ethic for the technological age (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1985)
J-F Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1984).
H Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (Beacon, Boston, 1964).
A Ness, 'The Shallow and the Deep, Long Range Ecology Movement. A Summary', Inquiry 16 (1973), 95-100.

Library, IT facilities, and space for individual and group study.