Das Feld der künstlerischen Forschung ist derzeit Schauplatz einer intensiven Debatte. Sie handel... more Das Feld der künstlerischen Forschung ist derzeit Schauplatz einer intensiven Debatte. Sie handelt von Erkenntniszielen, Verfahren und Instrumenten dieser Forschung auf der einen, von der Autorität und Spezialisierung der beteiligten Instanzen auf der anderen Seite. Zur Orientierung der Forschenden und der KünstlerInnen präsentiert das ipf in subtexte 03 vier Positionen und Perspektiven auf die Forschung über, für und in der Kunst.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) was one of the most prominent Enlightenment figures in Ger... more Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) was one of the most prominent Enlightenment figures in Germany - alongside with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Immanuel Kant. During his lifetime he was best known as a professor of physics, popularizer of science, witty mind, and thought-provoking essayist. His enduring philosophical legacy is based on his posthumously published so-called wastebooks (rough notebooks) which gather together countless observations and remarks and which founded a tradition of aphoristic writing that was continued by the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Schopenhauer, and especially Ludwig Wittgenstein. The characteristic feature of the aphoristic method is not to pointedly sum up or to cast a thought in a concise witty form. Instead, the aphorism provides a pregnant formulation that occasions a movement of thought. This paper picks up on extant characterizations of Lichtenbergs Sprachdenken (thinking of, by, and through language) and seeks to develop them ...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Franken... more Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature shows that the premodern, alchemical dream of animating lifeless things returns after science has studied its “realities of little worth.” If Frankenstein speaks to us today, it is because today’s technosciences carry forward the alchemical dream. Whereas science requires a calm and peaceful state of mind, Victor’s technoscience – then and now – is driven by a supernatural enthusiasm. Accordingly we may find that even the supposedly ordinary nanotechnologies and materials sciences of our day and age are not “befitting the human mind” – long before one seeks to create artificial life.
In the modern world of science and technology, of transparency, accountability and regulatory act... more In the modern world of science and technology, of transparency, accountability and regulatory action it would appear inconceivable to consider progress as the deliberate production of ignorance. Here ignorance is not an unintended consequence but acknowledged to be a precondition for the achievement of technologically embodied knowledge that is not constrained by the requirements and limitations of the human mind. It appears ever more evident that citizens in the age of technoscience are not only coming to terms with, but embracing the hitherto inconceivable surrender of an intellectual conception of knowledge. The paper outlines some of the ways in which the tolerance for ignorance is virtue and necessity for technoscientific research.
Stuart Kauffman and Brian Goodwin treat organisms as complex systems. Their claim revitalizes the... more Stuart Kauffman and Brian Goodwin treat organisms as complex systems. Their claim revitalizes the vitalism of Hans Driesch who situated biological processes within a general theory of order. Along with many others who emphasize the challenge of complexity all three maintain that “[w]e will have to rethink what science is itself ” (Kauffman 2000, 22). But what is this challenge to canonical ways of doing science? Here, Kauffman and Goodwin part company. Though both fend off the accusation that the very idea of a “scientific vitalism” is conceptually incoherent, only Kauffman’s scientific vitalism involves a wholly different science of complexity while Goodwin foregrounds a wholly new class of complex phenomena which, however, are subject to familiar modes of causal analysis.—Kauffman and Goodwin’s disagreement about the requirements for a “science of complexity” reappears in a new guise in discussions of systems biology and synthetic biology and generally of complex systems.
... to the question of how performances can acknowl-edge the postmodern condition without succumb... more ... to the question of how performances can acknowl-edge the postmodern condition without succumbing to it.4 Responses to this problem are developed by Frank Castorf, Heiner Miiller, George Tabori, and lesser known German directors like Andreas Kriegenburg, Christoph ...
The performance of a text or the staging of a play is often and easily imagined as the representa... more The performance of a text or the staging of a play is often and easily imagined as the representation, in another medium, of its content or meaning. On stage can be shown what the script merely says; the rehearsal process and the production itself thus appear as means towards the end of communicating to the audience what an author has set down on paper. When this picture of what goes on in performance is extended to dance or the realization of musical scores, the notion of "representation" proves too narrow, and performances are, therefore, often said to "express" a feeling, content, or intention.
A breakthrough technology is one that breaks through the dam of conventional wisdom and slow prog... more A breakthrough technology is one that breaks through the dam of conventional wisdom and slow progress, opening up prospects for transformative change. The radical novelty of a "breakthrough technology" is thus conveyed by the old, familiar, and rather conventional image of a "breakthrough". This holds true for nanotechnology's claim to novelty. It has to draw on traditional imagery that, through
It is a basic assumption of classical modern epistemology that any genuine / true knowledge is fa... more It is a basic assumption of classical modern epistemology that any genuine / true knowledge is factual knowledge (Tatsachenwissen). Moreover, separate facts correspond with the certain statements regarding how the things are presented to us. If these statements are true and genuine, then the corresponding facts are being present and visa versa. However, the philosophy of technology insists on the fact, that we, the people, carry out not only world contemplation so as to enunciate true statements. We all interact somehow with the material things when we either do something or build. For this very purpose we need some knowledge that is to be examined and further developed. There are suggestions to characterize this very knowledge as material knowledge (Dingwissen). However, this expression after all deceives the addressee. It is reasonable to suppose that there exist the working knowledge knowledge concerning the components operate within the scope of the clock mechanism or steelworks...
Am Ursprung der Nanotechnologie steht die Vorstellung, sie könne mit der Natur über die Natur hin... more Am Ursprung der Nanotechnologie steht die Vorstellung, sie könne mit der Natur über die Natur hinausgehen. Diese Vorstellung erklärt sich bisweilen mit überraschender Deutlichkeit, bisweilen schwingt sie latent mit. Oft ist sie rhetorische Begleitmusik zu konventioneller Forschung, manchmal benennt sie entlegene Möglichkeiten. Dieser visionäre Topos oder (Alb-)Traum der Vernunft will näher beleuchtet werden. Dabei gilt es vor allem, seine Merkwürdigkeit, gar 1
Das Feld der künstlerischen Forschung ist derzeit Schauplatz einer intensiven Debatte. Sie handel... more Das Feld der künstlerischen Forschung ist derzeit Schauplatz einer intensiven Debatte. Sie handelt von Erkenntniszielen, Verfahren und Instrumenten dieser Forschung auf der einen, von der Autorität und Spezialisierung der beteiligten Instanzen auf der anderen Seite. Zur Orientierung der Forschenden und der KünstlerInnen präsentiert das ipf in subtexte 03 vier Positionen und Perspektiven auf die Forschung über, für und in der Kunst.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) was one of the most prominent Enlightenment figures in Ger... more Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) was one of the most prominent Enlightenment figures in Germany - alongside with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Immanuel Kant. During his lifetime he was best known as a professor of physics, popularizer of science, witty mind, and thought-provoking essayist. His enduring philosophical legacy is based on his posthumously published so-called wastebooks (rough notebooks) which gather together countless observations and remarks and which founded a tradition of aphoristic writing that was continued by the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Schopenhauer, and especially Ludwig Wittgenstein. The characteristic feature of the aphoristic method is not to pointedly sum up or to cast a thought in a concise witty form. Instead, the aphorism provides a pregnant formulation that occasions a movement of thought. This paper picks up on extant characterizations of Lichtenbergs Sprachdenken (thinking of, by, and through language) and seeks to develop them ...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Franken... more Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature shows that the premodern, alchemical dream of animating lifeless things returns after science has studied its “realities of little worth.” If Frankenstein speaks to us today, it is because today’s technosciences carry forward the alchemical dream. Whereas science requires a calm and peaceful state of mind, Victor’s technoscience – then and now – is driven by a supernatural enthusiasm. Accordingly we may find that even the supposedly ordinary nanotechnologies and materials sciences of our day and age are not “befitting the human mind” – long before one seeks to create artificial life.
In the modern world of science and technology, of transparency, accountability and regulatory act... more In the modern world of science and technology, of transparency, accountability and regulatory action it would appear inconceivable to consider progress as the deliberate production of ignorance. Here ignorance is not an unintended consequence but acknowledged to be a precondition for the achievement of technologically embodied knowledge that is not constrained by the requirements and limitations of the human mind. It appears ever more evident that citizens in the age of technoscience are not only coming to terms with, but embracing the hitherto inconceivable surrender of an intellectual conception of knowledge. The paper outlines some of the ways in which the tolerance for ignorance is virtue and necessity for technoscientific research.
Stuart Kauffman and Brian Goodwin treat organisms as complex systems. Their claim revitalizes the... more Stuart Kauffman and Brian Goodwin treat organisms as complex systems. Their claim revitalizes the vitalism of Hans Driesch who situated biological processes within a general theory of order. Along with many others who emphasize the challenge of complexity all three maintain that “[w]e will have to rethink what science is itself ” (Kauffman 2000, 22). But what is this challenge to canonical ways of doing science? Here, Kauffman and Goodwin part company. Though both fend off the accusation that the very idea of a “scientific vitalism” is conceptually incoherent, only Kauffman’s scientific vitalism involves a wholly different science of complexity while Goodwin foregrounds a wholly new class of complex phenomena which, however, are subject to familiar modes of causal analysis.—Kauffman and Goodwin’s disagreement about the requirements for a “science of complexity” reappears in a new guise in discussions of systems biology and synthetic biology and generally of complex systems.
... to the question of how performances can acknowl-edge the postmodern condition without succumb... more ... to the question of how performances can acknowl-edge the postmodern condition without succumbing to it.4 Responses to this problem are developed by Frank Castorf, Heiner Miiller, George Tabori, and lesser known German directors like Andreas Kriegenburg, Christoph ...
The performance of a text or the staging of a play is often and easily imagined as the representa... more The performance of a text or the staging of a play is often and easily imagined as the representation, in another medium, of its content or meaning. On stage can be shown what the script merely says; the rehearsal process and the production itself thus appear as means towards the end of communicating to the audience what an author has set down on paper. When this picture of what goes on in performance is extended to dance or the realization of musical scores, the notion of "representation" proves too narrow, and performances are, therefore, often said to "express" a feeling, content, or intention.
A breakthrough technology is one that breaks through the dam of conventional wisdom and slow prog... more A breakthrough technology is one that breaks through the dam of conventional wisdom and slow progress, opening up prospects for transformative change. The radical novelty of a "breakthrough technology" is thus conveyed by the old, familiar, and rather conventional image of a "breakthrough". This holds true for nanotechnology's claim to novelty. It has to draw on traditional imagery that, through
It is a basic assumption of classical modern epistemology that any genuine / true knowledge is fa... more It is a basic assumption of classical modern epistemology that any genuine / true knowledge is factual knowledge (Tatsachenwissen). Moreover, separate facts correspond with the certain statements regarding how the things are presented to us. If these statements are true and genuine, then the corresponding facts are being present and visa versa. However, the philosophy of technology insists on the fact, that we, the people, carry out not only world contemplation so as to enunciate true statements. We all interact somehow with the material things when we either do something or build. For this very purpose we need some knowledge that is to be examined and further developed. There are suggestions to characterize this very knowledge as material knowledge (Dingwissen). However, this expression after all deceives the addressee. It is reasonable to suppose that there exist the working knowledge knowledge concerning the components operate within the scope of the clock mechanism or steelworks...
Am Ursprung der Nanotechnologie steht die Vorstellung, sie könne mit der Natur über die Natur hin... more Am Ursprung der Nanotechnologie steht die Vorstellung, sie könne mit der Natur über die Natur hinausgehen. Diese Vorstellung erklärt sich bisweilen mit überraschender Deutlichkeit, bisweilen schwingt sie latent mit. Oft ist sie rhetorische Begleitmusik zu konventioneller Forschung, manchmal benennt sie entlegene Möglichkeiten. Dieser visionäre Topos oder (Alb-)Traum der Vernunft will näher beleuchtet werden. Dabei gilt es vor allem, seine Merkwürdigkeit, gar 1
Überwindet Technik das unheimlich Unbeherrschbare? Oder wird sie uns selbst unheimlich? Zwei sche... more Überwindet Technik das unheimlich Unbeherrschbare? Oder wird sie uns selbst unheimlich? Zwei scheinbar widersprüchliche Narrative prägen die Geschichte und auch die Theorie der Technik: Das Narrativ der Entzauberung beschreibt, wie eine als fremd und gefährlich erfahrene Natur durch Verwissenschaftlichung und Technisierung gezähmt wurde. Das Narrativ der (Wieder)Verzauberung schildert, wie uns Artefakte und technologische Möglichkeiten unheimlich werden, insbesondere wenn sie sich zu verselbständigen scheinen oder mit »autonomem« Eigensinn gegenübertreten. In den heutigen Debatten um selbstlernende, ubiquitär verteilte, im Assistenzmodus unsichtbare, dabei opake Techniken schwingt das unheimliche Moment einer »Verselbständigung« von Technik mit – und trägt im Anschluss an die Mechanisierungs-und Automatisierungsdiskurse des 20. Jahrhunderts zur »Dämonisierung« der Technik bei. Technik macht Welt einerseits vertraut und nachvollziehbar: Paradigmatisch wird dies in der Idee, dass etwas dann verstanden wird, wenn es technisch rekonstruiert werden kann. Andererseits wird die technische Reproduktion von Welt – oder deren radikale Umgestaltung zu einer entfremdeten – als etwas Verstörendes erlebt. Spätestens, wenn Artefakte zu tun scheinen, »was sie wollen« oder technische Großsysteme die Lebenswelt nach ihren »Eigenlogiken« prägen, ist eine schon von Freud benannte Grenze erreicht, an der wir verunsichert werden, ob wir überhaupt noch in der modernen Welt leben. Freilich beschränkt sich der Zusammenhang von Technik, Autonomie und Unheimlichkeit nicht auf die befremdliche oder erschreckende Anmutung von Artefakten. »Die Kluft zwischen Wissen und Können ist vielleicht grösser, auch unheimlicher als man denkt«, notiert Nietzsche in Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Günther Anders weitet dies auf die Schere zwischen dem Vorstellbaren und dem Machbaren aus, wonach das Machbare hinter die Vorstellungskraft zurückfallen kann – und umgekehrt das Vorstellen hinter das Herstellen. Wie das schiere, blinde Können unheimlich sein kann, führen auch Filme und literarische Werke vor, in seinem technikphilosophisch inspirierten Roman Der Unbesiegbare (Niezwyciężony, 1964) beispielsweise Stanisław Lem. Als unheimlich kann darüber hinaus sowohl eine Perfektion der Mittel als auch ihr Überschuss wirken, siehe hierzu schon den Mythos des Prometheus oder das Chorlied in Sophokles' Antigone »Ungeheuer ist vieles, nichts aber ungeheurer als der Mensch«. Schließlich soll Technik »innovativ« sein und verpflichtet sich auf das unerhört Neue mit der Behauptung einer eigenlogischen Entwicklungstendenz zu autonomen (und somit: disruptiven, transformativen) Technologien. Neuheitspostulate sind in der Sache interessant – vielleicht ist etwas daran? Gleichwohl produzieren beispielsweise auch alarmistische Neuheits-Narrative ihrerseits Unheimlichkeiten und Unsicherheiten. Und diese werden womöglich strategisch gestaltet. Im Namen einer vorgeblich durch Technik bedrohten Autonomie sehen wir – gerade als Technikkritiker*innen – uns dann durch eine ›unheimliche Reflexion‹ zum Handeln gezwungen. Für den so umschriebenen Themenkomplex stehen die Titelwörter des Schwerpunkts Unheimlichkeit und Autonomie im Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie 2020. Der Schwerpunkt wird gemeinsam mit der Zeitschrift für Technikgeschichte verantwortet, die dazu im Herbst 2018 einen korrespondieren CfP zirkulieren wird. Auf Seiten des JTPhil sind sowohl systematische als auch historische Ansätze mit philosophischer Fragestellung willkommen. Manuskripte in deutscher, englischer oder französischer Sprache können bis zum 15. Januar 2019 eingereicht werden und sollten nicht mehr als 33.000 Zeichen (inkl. Leerzeichen und Anmerkungen) umfassen. Ein Begutachtungsverfahren (double blind peer review) stellt die Qualität der Abhandlungen sicher. Vor der Einreichung eines Manuskripts wird die Zusendung einer kurzen Themenskizze (Abstract) bis zum 1. Oktober 2018 erbeten. Darauf erfolgt ein erstes redaktionelles Feedback. Einsendungen richten Sie bitte per E-Mail an die Redaktion: jahrbuch@phil.tu-darmstadt.de.
Does technological control take the place of what appeared uncannily uncontrollable? Or is it its... more Does technological control take the place of what appeared uncannily uncontrollable? Or is it itself becoming uncanny? Two seemingly contradictory narratives shape the history and theory of technology. The narrative of disenchantment describes how nature, experienced as foreign and dangerous, was tamed by becoming scientific and mechanized. Second the narrative of (re-)enchantment recounts how artifacts and technological possibilities become uncanny, especially by way of their seeming independence and by confronting us with an »autonomous« logic of their own.
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