Husserl's Missing Technologies - (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy) by Don Ihde (Paperback)

About the Book

Don Ihde, contemporary postphenomenological philosopher of science and technology--technoscience--examines the important philosophical role of Husserl, here in relation to technologies, and his classical phenomenology. With concrete analyses of both the science of Husserl's time and a retrospective reading from new technoscience interpretations, scientific instruments, technologies of reading and writing, and new imaging technologies are discussed.

Book Synopsis

Husserl's Missing Technologies looks at the early-twentieth-century "classical" phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, both in the light of the philosophy of science of his time, and retrospectively at his philosophy from a contemporary "postphenomenology." Of central interest are his infrequent comments upon technologies and especially scientific instruments such as the telescope and microscope. Together with his analysis of Husserl, Don Ihde ventures through the recent history of technologies of science, reading and writing, and science praxis, calling for modifications to phenomenology by converging it with pragmatism. This fruitful hybridization emphasizes human-technology interrelationships, the role of embodiment and bodily skills, and the inherent multistability of technologies. In a radical argument, Ihde contends that philosophies, in the same way that various technologies contain an ever-shortening obsolescence, ought to have contingent use-lives.

Review Quotes

"Husserl's Missing Technologies is a natural and informative companion to Heidegger's Technologies. It deepens Ihde's analysis of technology and offers important new perspectives on pragmatism, science, and technology studies. An insightful and probing work."-----Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines

About the Author

Don Ihde is Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Stony Brook University. His most recent books include Experimental Phenomenology: Multistability; Heidegger's Technologies: Postphenomenological Perspectives (Fordham); and Embodied Technics.