Abstract:
The paper aims at setting the problem of the relation between technology, and the individual within the framework of Pierre Hadot’s idea of spiritual exercises. It compares two rivaling views of technology that originated in the Weimar Republic in order to outline a problematic field for examining the present position of the individual and technology. As the approaches of Weimar philosophers call for an actualization, the conception of Michel Foucault’s technologies of the self is brought forth. In the conclusion of the paper, the need for contradistinction within the very notion of technology is stressed, in an attempt to incorporate the topical issue into Hadot’s theory of philosophy as a way of life.
Keywords:
technology, spiritual exercises, Weimar Republic, Hadot, Foucault
How to cite:
Dobkowski, Piotr. “Technological Exercises.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 5, no. 2 (2021): 78-87. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2021.0018.
Author:
Piotr Dobkowski
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 3, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
References:
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the College de France, 1981-1982. Edited by Frédéric Gross. Translated by Graham Burchell. London: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09483-4.
Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York, London: Harper and Row, 1968.
Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Edited by Arnold I. Davidson. Translated by Michael Chase. Cambridge, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 1995.
Hadot, Pierre. What Is Ancient Philosophy. Translated by Michael Chase. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2004.
Hadot, Pierre. The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature. Translated by Michael Chase. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. Translated by William Lovitt. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1977.
Herf, Jeffrey. Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich. Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press, 1984. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511583988.
Hoel, Aud Sissel, and Ingvild Folkvord, eds. Ernst Cassirer On Form and Technology: Contemporary Readings. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137007773.
Jünger, Friedrich Georg. The Failure of Technology: Perfection Without Purpose. Washington: Henry Regnery Company, 1949.
McLuhan, Marshall. Essential McLuhan. London: Routledge, 1997.
Schatzberg, Eric. Technology: Critical History of a Concept. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226584027.001.0001.
Testa, Federico. “Towards a History of Philosophical Practices in Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot.” Pli, The Warwick Journal of Philosophy. In Special Volume Self-Cultivation: Ancient and Modern, (2016): 168-90.
Open Access Statement:
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Submitting a text to Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture means that the author agrees with the general conditions of this license. The author does and will maintain copyrights and publishing rights for his/her article without any restrictions.