Anthropology in the Age of Technology

The Philosophical Contribution of Günther Anders
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-90-420-1402-2
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 103, 194 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 381 g

Reihe: Value Inquiry Book Series

This book is the first to discuss, for an English-speaking audience, the ideas of the German-Jewish man of letters, thinker, and activist Günther Anders. Anders is one of few philosophers to deal intensely with the moral consequences of Auschwitz and Hiroshima. He can rightly be called the philosopher of the atomic age, and his thinking a philosophy of modern technology.
In biting manifestoes, sharp aphorisms, and penetrating essays, in stirring diary notes and political fables, Anders strikes out the age in which we live. As a twentieth-century visionary, he exposes the absence of the moral and social imaginations that is necessary to prevent our history from ending in a total catastrophe. In the gap between our technical creations and our utter inability to imagine their destructive potential lies the basis for the unstoppable activity of this practical philosopher. From every possible angle, he attempts to comprehend this modern schizophrenia in its roots and consequences.
Anders is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He tried to describe and analyze the variety of manifestations of the “self-destructive progress of our technical civilization,” which makes humanity into an “anti-quated” sort. He diagnosed countless important problems, ranging from the world of media to the dictates of the world of machinery, and he investigated their social, political, and philosophical meaning.
To read his writings is more than becoming acquainted with a rich and colorful philosopher. It is more than an encounter with a moving and passionate individual. It is ultimately a confrontation with oneself, with our own guilt and responsibility, with our personal hopes and fears, with our lack of imagination and with our need to recover it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dijk, Paul van

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Editorial Foreword. One Introduction. Two Portrait of Günther Anders. Three The Core Thinking of Anders. Four The Relation of Anders to Academic Philosphy. Five Anders's Philosophy of Technology in Relation to That of Heidegger. Six Anders and the Technology Debate. Seven Evaluation and Closing Remarks. Chronology. Bibliography. About the Author. Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Until his retirement, Summer 1998, Dr. Paul van Dijk (born 1933) taught moral philosophy and philosophy of technology at the Twente University of Technology and Social Sciences, Enschede, the Netherlands. He received his doctoral degree at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, with a dissertation on the moral philosophy of the scientist and philosopher of technology, Cornelis J. Dippel. His research focuses on ethical, philosophical, and theological implications of natural sciences and technology. In that context, he became fascinated by the writings of the thinker and activist Günther Anders. Van Dijk has published three books and many essays in the fields of philosophy of peace and philosophy of technology.