Friedrich Rapp

The Prospects for Technology Assessment

This paper is designed to draw attention to specific problems of Technology Assessment (TA) and to indicate the range of results that can reasonably be expected from this emergent procedure.1 In doing this only the formal features are discussed. Their consideration is necessary and at the same time sufficient to elucidate the epistemological status of TA. The complementary material problems — which concern, for example, the “true needs” and the ideal of the good life, and also our responsibility towards future generations or towards nature — are not discussed here. Needless to say, the interest of TA is aroused by these concrete problems. In what follows they are referred to in an overall way, but their (controversial) details are not discussed, the underlying premise being that a metatheoretical analysis, as performed here, can contribute indirectly to a better understanding of these problems. By its very nature such an analysis has a double function. It demarcates a sort of safe ground — i.e., a sphere within which theoretically justified conditional assessments can be expected — and at the same time it excludes the problematic and unsafe area of dogmatic prescriptions.

Philosophy of technology

Only a few decades ago the contribution made by modern technology to civilisation was on the whole eagerly accepted, and hence no actual need for an investigation of the philosophical problems of technology was seen. There were, of course, some exceptions. But they did not attract much attention. Until the Second World War a concern for modern technology was more present in the intuitive understanding of artists and poets than in the rational thinking of philosophers. Surveys of the treatment of technology in literature are given by Marx [1], Sussman [2], and Sachsse [3], (Vol. 2). The continuous technological progress since the Industrial Revolution seemed to confirm the Rationalist idea of the domination of man over nature and the optimism of the Age of Enlightenment. As Koselleck [4] documents, the biological and social theories of evolution of the 19th century fostered the expectation of unlimited material growth and also, by derivation, of social, cultural, and even moral progress for mankind, to be achieved by means of science, technology and industry.

The methodological symmetry between verification and falsification

ZusammenfassungIm Rahmen der deduktiven Logik genügt schon ein einziger negativer Fall, um eine Allaussage als falsch zu erweisen ; trotzdem bleibt bei dieser „schwachen Falsifikation“ der Wahrheitswert der übrigen Fälle völlig offen. Die methodologisch relevante „starke Falsifikation“, die besagt, daß auch alle künftigen Fälle negative Wahrheitswerte haben, setzt dagegen immer einen erweiternden Induktionsschluß voraus. Deshalb ist die These, daß eine wissenschaftliche Theorie ohne Bezugnahme auf das Induktionsprinzip bereits durch ein einziges Gegenbeispiel falsifiziert werden könne, nur dann haltbar, wenn man bereit ist, auf jede wissenschaftliche Prognose zu verzichten.

The Limited Promise of Technology Assessment

At a first glance, technology and history appear to be fundamentally different, if not opposed to each other. In the engineering sciences and within the conceptual and organizational framework of decision making the artifacts brought about by technology are regarded as definite, isolated systems. These technological artifacts can in principle be controlled and their “behavior” predicted with precision. In a broader perspective, one could even claim that everything that can be predicted, controlled, and effectively managed belongs to the field of technics.

The Dynamics of Science

Objectively, there is only one world. But this world is subject to change and manifests itself in the most varied forms. This objective variety is perceived subjectively in many different ways by the epistemological subject. The point is which epochs, cultures, social groups, scientific disciplines and individuals perceive and intrepret this world, whether collectively or individually. For this reason it is sometimes said metaphorically that individual people and the different scientific disciplines — to keep to our examples — live in quite different worlds.

The physical and the social foundations of technology

A conceptual framework for the analysis of various aspects of technology is indicated. The following points are discussed in succession: Science and technology, the transformation of input variables into output variables, technology as a means, the quasi-autonomy of technological progress. The analysis of the various factors delimiting the given technological possibilities and the investigation of the processes leading to the realization of a certain selection of these possibilities brings the technical and the social aspect together. In this way the assessment implied in the choice among alternative ways of instrumental action becomes evident, and the application of a certain technology can be reconstructed as resulting from a complex social decision.

Die Theorieabhängigkeit der Information

Durch die bestandig steigende Leistungsfahigkeit der Computertechnik und der Programmierung wird eine Fulle von philosophischen Problemen aufgeworfen, von denen im folgenden nur ein spezieller Fragenkomplex zur Geltung kommen soll. Das Thema ist der erkenntnistheoretische Status von Informationen. Im einzelnen werden diskutiert: 1. die Beziehung zwischen Philosophie und der speziellen Disziplin der Computerwissenschaft, 2. die Abgrenzung des Themas, 3. die Bedeutung logischer Kunstsprachen und naturlicher Sprachen, der umfassendere theoretische Hintergrund, 5. drei Beispiele, 6. die Unterscheidung zwischen Tatsachenfeststellungen und Werturteilen, 7. ein systematisches Schema, 8. die Erfasbarkeit des theoretischen Hintergrundes.

Bibliography of the Works by J. M. Bocheński 1961–1980

The following bibliography contains the scholarly publications of J. M. Bochenski that have appeared since 1961. A bibliography of his earlier works can be found in Contributions to Logic and Methodology: Essays in Honor of J. M. Bochenski, ed. by A. T. Tymieniecka and C. D. Parsons, Humanities Press, 1965.

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM AND REVOLUTIONARY CLASS WAR IN MARXIST THINKING

The basic ideas of historical materialism were conceived within the context of the political and social situation obtaining more than a century ago. Thus it may be legitimate to ask which of the views of Marx and Engels (who will henceforth be considered here as speaking with one voice) have turned out true in terms of the historical development which has taken place in the meantime. Clearly the present state of pauperization of the proletariat and the degree of class consciousness and of revolutionary activity in the Western countries do not correspond to the expectations of the classics. The same is true of the current situation in the Communist countries, where according to the ideas of Marx and Engels all kinds of power structure, social antagonism and alienation should have been abolished. On the whole, the actual political and social circumstances in our world hardly correspond to the state of affairs expected by Marx and Engels.

Die Möglichkeiten der Technikbewertung

Ziel der folgenden Ausfuhrungen ist es, die besonderen methodologischen und erkenntnistheoretischen Probleme der Technikbewertung (TB) herauszustellen und den Bereich abzustecken, innerhalb dessen von der TB sinnvollerweise Ergebnisse zu erwarten sind. Aus diesem Grund werden hier nur die formalen und metatheoretischen Fragen der TB angesprochen. Die dazu komplementaren materialen und objekttheoretischen Fragen, wie etwa die Diskussibn uber die ‘wahren Bedurfnisse’, den ‘richtigen Lebensstil’ oder uber unsere Verantwortlichkeit gegenuber kommenden Generationen und gegenur der Natur, werden nur indirekt und in summarischer Form, aber nicht direkt und in ihren Einzelheiten angesprochen. Gewis beruht das eigentliche Interesse an der TB auf den konkreten, inhaltlichen Problemen einer Bewertung technischer Innovationen und der Diskussion uber die Moglichkeiten und die Wunschbarkeit ihrer Steuerung. Den folgenden Ausfuhrungen liegt die Pramisse zugrunde, das die Klarung der methodologischen und erkenntnistheoretischen Rahmenbedingungen eine ebenso legitime und notwendige philosophische Aufgabe darstellt, wie die Untersuchung der heute lebhaft und in kontroverser Form diskutierten Sachfragen der TB.1