L&S Discovery
Utilizing Heidegger's 1954 essay, "The Question Concerning Technology," and related essays as a starting point, our inquiry will also include perspectives from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Roland Barthes. We will establish a theoretical basis for thinking about technology and new media and apply it to a selection of technologies that shape our contemporary experience.
The course has no prerequisites but is geared toward ambitious and mature juniors and seniors who are willing to read carefully, engage in discussions, and think deeply about technology and western values. This course can be used to fulfill the Breadth requirement in Philosophy and Values.
| Attendance and Participation | 30% |
| Mid-Term Project and Write-Up | 30% |
| Final Project/Paper | 40% |
| I. THE ESSENCE OF TECHNOLOGY | |
| Week 1- Introduction January 20th Show and Discuss Film: Being in the World, (2010) Directed by Tao Ruspini |
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| Week 2- Epochs of History, Part I January 27th DISCUSS: Heidegger’s "The Origin of the Work of Art" |
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| Week 3- Epochs of History, Part II February 3rd DISCUSS: Heidegger's "Age of the World Picture" |
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| Week 4- The Essence of Technology, Part I February 10th DISCUSS: Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology" |
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| Week 5- The Essence of Technology, Part II February 17th DISCUSS: Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology" |
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| II. HISTORICAL STAGES OF TECHNOLOGY | |
| Week 6- Meso-Modern: Disciplinary Power February 24th DISCUSS: Michel Foucault "Docile Bodies" |
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| Week 7- Modern: From Efficiency to Hyper-Efficiency March 3rd DISCUSS: Frederick Taylor "Principles of Scientific Management" 1-76 DISCUSS: Gilles Deleuze "Postscript on the Societies of Control" |
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| Week 8- Post-Modern: Flexibility, “Technacidy” / “Technicity” March 10th REVIEW: Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology" John Haugeland “Origins of Money, the Alphabet, and Philosophy,” Centennial Conference on “Origins,” Stanford University (September 1987) |
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| III. “TRANSFORMATIONAL” TECHNOLOGIES | |
| Week 9- Postmodern Plasticity: The Universal Material: Plastic March 17th DISCUSS: Roland Barthes Essay on Plastic (1972) |
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| Week 10- Spring Break NO CLASS |
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| **Midterm Project / Paper Due in Class After Spring Break** Possible Topic: Research an Industrial Technology and discuss how it either fulfills or challenges Heidegger's notions of technology (similar to the way he analyzes the Rhine river in relation to the hydroelectric dam.) |
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| Week 11- The Universal Genetic Code: DNA March 31st DISCUSS: “Biocolage” Katherine Hayles, Critical Art Ensemble, et al. in Art Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 44-63 |
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| Week 12- The Universal Computing Machine: Digitalization April 7th DISCUSS: Selections from Lev Manovich’s Language of New Media: “Principles of New Media: Numerical Representation” and “Myths of the Digital” AND Selections from W.J.T. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Age |
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| Week 13- Networks and Protocols: The Internet April 14th DISCUSS: Selections from Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization by Alex Galloway “Introduction” by Eugene Thacker, and “Chapter 2: Form” |
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| Week 14- The Universal Repair: Stem Cells April 21stth DISCUSS: Selections from Science: “Selling the Stem Cell Dream” and “Stem Cells: Golden Opportunities with Ethical Baggage.” |
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| Week 15- The Universal Building Block: Nanotechnology April 28thth DISCUSS: Selections from The Economist, “Silver Tongues” “The Wizard of Small Things” and “The Smaller the Better” |
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| Week 16- Wrap-Up May 5thth **Final Paper/Project Due in Class** |
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