What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, And Design [Paperback]

Peter-Paul Verbeek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0271025409 | ISBN-13: 978-0271025407 | Publication Date: September 30, 2005 | Edition: illustrated edition

Our modern society is flooded with all sorts of devices: TV sets, automobiles, microwaves, mobile phones. How are all these things affecting us? How can their role in our lives be understood? What Things Do answers these questions by focusing on how technologies mediate our actions and our perceptions of the world. Its systematic and historical review of the philosophy of technology makes What Things Do suitable for use as an introductory text, while its innovative approach will make it appealing to readers in many fields, including philosophy, sociology, engineering, and industrial design.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is really a good book. The goal is to advance our philosophical and cultural understanding of technology with a focused interpretation of artifacts or material culture. As Verbeek correctly argues, previous modem philosophies of technology (Jaspers and Heidegger) have inadequately appreciated artifacts as artifacts. More contemporary philosophers of technology (Ihde, Latour, and Borgmann) have taken steps toward more adequate appreciations and understanding of artifacts, but their work calls for development and especially application to the real world of design. Verbeek demonstrates a solid appreciation of what has gone before him, fairly explicates and criticizes (his criticisms are always judicious and acknowledge others), and then creatively extends the movement toward a fuller appreciation of artifacts. If I were to give this book my own title, it would be 'Artifacts Have Consequences' (playing off the Richard Weaver book 'Ideas Have Consequences'). --Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines

Peter-Paul Verbeek is one of the up-and-coming philosophers of technology. He has been able to combine some of the best insights from both contemporary philosophy of technology and the newer strands of science studies. Looking at materiality, he extends the attentiveness to things that comes from these movements. His own original insights show forth in this book. --Don Ihde, SUNY Stony Brook

About the Author

Peter-Paul Verbeek is a teacher and researcher in the philosophy of technology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His book was originally published in Dutch under the title De daadkracht der dingen: Over techniek, filosofie en vormgeving (2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 249 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr; illustrated edition edition (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271025409
• ISBN-13: 978-0271025407
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter-Paul Verbeek (1970) is professor of philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. He is also part-time extraordinary professor of philosophy at Delft University of Technology (Socrates chair). Verbeek is chairman of the 'Young Academy', which is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.