Towards a Critical Theory of the Technosystem Andrew Feenberg, Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason, Harvard University Press, 2017, 235 pp., ISBN 9780674971783, James Bridle, New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, Verso, 2018, 294 pp., ISBN 9781786635471, and Taina Bucher, If…Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics, Oxford University Press, 200 pp., ISBN 9780190493035

Feenberg’s new book, Technosystem: the social life of reason , makes an important intervention in the study of technological systems by showing that instrumental reason requires value judgement at the moment of its realization in this world. It fosters hope that technological development can be redi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJus Cogens Vol. 1; no. 2; pp. 173 - 185
Main Author Wolff, Raphaël
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2019
Subjects
International Organizations
Law
Law and Criminolgy
Legal History
Philosophy of Law
Political Theory
Review Article
Sources and Subjects of International Law
Theories of Law
Reification
Technology
Instrumental reason
Politicization
Big data
Capitalism
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Summary:Feenberg’s new book, Technosystem: the social life of reason , makes an important intervention in the study of technological systems by showing that instrumental reason requires value judgement at the moment of its realization in this world. It fosters hope that technological development can be redirected towards the fulfilment of human needs through public interventions of nonexperts. However, Feenberg does not sufficiently engage with the political dilemmas that inevitably accompany these interventions as a result of the formal capitalist bias of the technosystem. The books by Bridle and Bucher underline the importance of confronting these dilemmas as they encounter them in various domains and provide possible ways for dealing with them.
ISSN:2524-3977
2524-3985
DOI:10.1007/s42439-019-00011-z