This paper aims to analyze the philosophical implications of the atomic bomb in the thinking of three German post-war philosophers: Günther Anders, Hannah Arendt, and Karl Jaspers. Although they differ greatly in interest and philosophical perspective, the atomic bomb can be discerned as a problem of humanity's technological, ethical, and political conditions in the intersection of their authorships. In the examination of their ideas, they are situated within a diachronic tradition of philosophy of technology. Their common entanglement with phenomenological-hermeneutic philosophy is also considered, most notably in the form of the influence of Martin Heidegger. For Anders, the atomic bomb is the defining feature of the ethical and political conditions of post-war humanity, yet humans are unable to grasp its reality. In the thinking of Jaspers, the bomb necessitates a supra-political principle grounded in the faculty of reason. For him, politics in the nuclear age must rest upon the responsibility of the many individuals, in an ethical re-birth of humanity. Arendt primarily understands the bomb as a product of the increasing power of the thoughtless instrumentality of science. The destructive potential of atomic weapons solidifies to her a crisis in the meaning of politics, in which brute force has undermined political power. All three thinkers share the view that the atomic bomb must be understood in conjunction with a certain thought- and meaninglessness in the science and politics of their contemporary. The bomb also signifies to them a technological obscuring of human agency, the implications of which are exacerbated by the fact that it has also immensely improved the ability of one individual to commit heinous acts. In impairing the conditions for ethical action and meaningful politics for lasting peace, the bomb necessitates these very same principles. By threatening to make humanity as mortal as only individuals had been before, the bomb has made radical change in human thinking and activity urgent. However, to what extent sufficient adaptations are probable, or even possible, is a question in which the philosophers discussed in this paper diverge.

The overlap between the separate fields of philosophy of technology and environmental philosophy can be investigated using the two longest running flagship journals for each field, Environmental Ethics (EE) and Research in Philosophy and Technology, which is now published as Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology (RPT/Techné). By looking at the theoretical and conceptual ideas on nature and the environment expressed in RPT/Techné, at those on technology and artifacts expressed in EE, and at the individuals who contributed them using the principles of social epistemology as developed by Steve Fuller, a stereoscopic view incorporating the insights from both specializations can be constructed. The ideas developed in the articles can be charted like stars within constellations, loosely connected in groupings that are neither clear nor evident. Five constellations can be discerned from the relevant articles in each journal, and while there is some overlap, there is considerable difference. The stereoscopic view is developed in three ways: first, by reviewing the contributions of authors who have published in both journals; second, by utilizing resources in both specializations to add subtlety and depth to the ideas expressed, starting in this case from Jacques Ellul’s “Nature, Technique and Artificiality”; and third, by using W. D. Ross’s ethical theory, which fuses prima facie duties with virtues, to integrate traditional ethical concerns with those raised by philosophers focused on technology and those concerned with the environment.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how a theology regarding artificial intelligence best could be formulated in concern of consequences for a christian view of human nature. This purpose is examined by means of a comparative study of consequences derived from four different perspectives on the emergence of AI and the theoretical implications of its relation with mankind. As premise for what is considered a desired, respectively an undesired consequence, the minimum amount of human suffering is used conditioning the possibility of living a good life. In conducting the analysis, Leslie Stevensons theory of humanity in relation to God is used to interpret the christian view of human nature and a general wide theory of AI based on Cornel Du Toits definition is applied. My assessment of the researched consequences ends in a proposal for a constructive christian theology which argues for the necessity of placing a high value on a human capacity for vulnerability. This is because it enables invaluable human qualities such as empathy and compassion. Qualities that also should  lead the way and be modeled into a concern for all of creation, whether it is considered natural or artificial.

Depuis le début des années 1990, l'ordinateur a introduit de nouvelles réalités technologiques dans les pratiques architecturales. Le changement s'est opéré progressivement, aux travers de plusieurs expérimentations, qui ont entrainé l'appropriation de certains logiciels et environnements de programmation, et aussi l'élaboration de nouvelles machines de fabrication. De nombreux architectes ont d'ailleurs expérimenté ces nouvelles technologies dans l'objectif de trouver de nouveaux modes d'exploration de la forme. Ces explorations architecturales constituent un corpus d'étude riche et fécond pour rendre compte des différentes conduites et attitudes adoptées vis-à-vis des technologies numériques. En s'appuyant sur certains penseurs de la technique comme le philosophe Gilbert Simondon, cette recherche a défini des sensibilités singulières propres aux architectes, construites par étapes successives, et modifiant à chaque fois leurs approches du projet. Notre démarche transductive montre que ces sensibilités technologiques s'avèrent à la fois structurantes et structurées par les explorations architecturales. Cette évolution des sensibilités participe autant que les projets à la construction d'un imaginaire numérique, lequel est à l'origine d'inventions architecturales particulières. Ces inventions architecturales propres au numérique ne se sont pas réalisées directement, mais au travers d'une articulation technologique complexe, intégrant les différentes phases du projet-objet. L'analyse de cette chaîne de relation a permis de suivre les tensions entre les désirs architecturaux et les potentialités technologiques qui ont structuré la période étudiée. Cette énergie humaine, déployée et accumulée sur plus de vingt ans d'expérimentations et d'explorations, a finalement laissé des traces sur les différentes couches du bâtiment, révélant par là certains aboutissements du numérique en architecture / Since the beginning of 90s, computers introduced new technological realities in architectural practices. Changes occurred gradually, through several phases of experimentation, and performed by tools (software) or manufacturing machines of all kinds, revealing the different ways architects appropriate technologies. Many architects seized these technological opportunities to find new ways in exploring the form. These architectural explorations constitute a rich and fruitful corpus to understand the different behaviors and attitudes towards digital technologies. Based on philosophers of technique such as Gilbert Simondon, this research defines the sensibilities specific to architects constructed in successive steps and modifying their perceptions of the project. Our transductive approach shows that these technical sensibilities happen to be structured by the architectural explorations and at the same time to structure these explorations. This evolution of sensibility participates in the construction of the architect's digital thinking, which is at the origin of some particular architectural inventions. These architectural inventions specific to digital technologies are not achieved directly, but integrating different phases of the project-object through a complex technical articulation. The analysis of this chain relationship allows monitoring the tensions between architectural desires and technical potentials, which structure the studied period. The human efforts deployed and accumulated over twenty years of experimentation and exploration have finally left their mark on different layers of the building by revealing, thus, some particular achievements of digital technologies in architecture

La matérialité biologique du corps humain est devenue l'objet d'interventions inédites au moyen de nouvelles technologies biomédicales, comme la procréation médicalement assistée, les tests génétiques, la contraception hormonale. Cette thèse part des difficultés inhérentes à une approche antinaturaliste pour aborder la dimension biologique des corps sexués. “On ne naît pas femme, on le devient” : mais qu'en est-il des corps ? Les technologies biomédicales investissent la chair selon des modalités qui échappent aux grilles d'analyses matérialiste et butlérienne. Faut-il y voir une réfutation du constructivisme, la revanche d'un socle biologique – hormonal, génétique, moléculaire – primant sur les effets anatomiques de la socialisation, comme le suggèrent les partisan·e·s d'un material turn féministe ? À partir d'une analyse de l'évolution de la notion de nature, définie comme "vie elle-même" depuis la révolution moléculaire de la biologie, cette thèse propose une autre interprétation, en définissant les technologies biomédicales comme des technologies de pouvoir relevant d’une biopolitique moléculaire de genre. Sans infirmer la perspective constructiviste, ces médiations sociales originales (adossées au nouveau paradigme épistémique) permettent de comprendre comment les frontières et limites du genre sont déplacées, tout en produisant des identités, des expériences et des subjectivités genrées inédites. En dégageant les coordonnées d'un véritable dispositif biomédical, notre étude comparative entre techniques disciplinaires et biopolitique moléculaire de genre plaide pour une critique antinaturaliste renouvelée, s’articulant à une critique de la technique qui permette d'inventer collectivement des moyens pour se réapproprier démocratiquement les technologies biomédicales. / The biological materiality of the human body has become an object of unprecedented interventions through “new biomedical technologies” as medically assisted procreation, genetic tests, or hormonal contraception. This thesis interrogates the difficulties inherent to anti-naturalist approaches in order to address the biological dimension of sexed bodies. “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”, but is this also true for the body? The analytical frames of materialist or deconstructivist feminism cannot cease the modalities through which biomedical technologies invest the flesh. Do biomedical technologies make constructivist approaches obsolete through the revenge of a biological – hormonal, genetic, molecular – ground that tops the anatomical effects of socialization? Partisans of a feminist “material turn” seem to think so. After analyzing how the molecular biology revolution changes the very concept of nature in defining it as “life itself”, I offer an alternative interpretation by defining biomedical technologies as technologies of power that stem from a molecular biopolitics of gender. Instead of overturning constructivist perspectives, these new social mediations (residing on a new epistemic paradigm) help understanding a shift in what has been seen as the limits of gender. This shift creates unprecedented identities, experiences and subjectivities of gender. In exposing the coordinates of the biomedical apparatus, this comparative study between disciplinary techniques and molecular biopolitics of gender pleads for a renewed anti-naturalist critique that takes the form of a critique of technology in order to allow for a collective appropriation of biomedical technologies.

Hyperpedagogy seeks to actualize social justice pedagogies and poststructuralist theorizing in digitally enhanced and online learning environments. Hyperpedagogy offers ways to incorporate transactional pedagogies into digital curricula so that learners throughout the United States' pluralistic culture can participate in e-learning. Much of the hyperbole promoting e-learning is founded on social-efficiency pedagogies (i.e. preparing tomorrow's workers for the information-based, new global economy) that tend to homogenize culturally pluralistic learners. The premium placed on a strict adherence to rigid learning systems inculcated within standards-based reform movements typically, moreover, discriminate against historically marginalized learners. Hyperpedagogy seeks to elucidate the closeting of privilege in e-learning so that learners of color, female learners, and homosexual learners can be better represented in the literature than is currently practiced. / Ph. D.

This dissertation is a theoretical study of the relationship between digitality, knowledge, and power in the age of Big Data. My argument is that human medical research on psychedelic substances supports a critique of what I call "the data episteme." I use "episteme" in the sense developed by philosopher Michel Foucault, where the term describes an apparatus for determining the properties associated with the epistemic condition of scientificity. I write that the data episteme suppresses bodies of knowledge which do not bear the epistemic virtues associated with digital data. These include but are not limited to the capacities for positivistic representation and translation into discrete digital media. Drawing from scientific reports, I demonstrate that certain forms of knowledge regarding the therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics cannot withstand positivistic representation and digitization. Henceforth, psychedelic research demands frameworks for epistemic legitimation which differ from those predicated on the criteria associated with the data episteme. I additionally claim that psychedelic inebriation promotes a form of thinking which has been called, by various theorists, "negative," "abstract," or "idiosyncratic" thought. Whereas the data episteme denies the existence of negative thought, psychedelic research suggests that this mental function is essential to the successful deposition of psychedelic substances as adjuncts to psychotherapy. For the reasons listed above, psychedelic science provides a uniquely salient lens on the normative operations of the data episteme. In the course of suppressing non-digitizable knowledge, the data episteme implements what Foucault conceptualizes "knowledge-power," a term which affirms the fact that there is no meaningful difference between knowledge and power. Here, "power" may be defined as the power to promote but also to retract conditions on which phenomena may exist across all sites of social, intellectual, and political construction. I write that the data episteme seeks to both nullify the preconditions for negative thought and to naturalize the possibility of an infinite expansion of human mental activity, which in turn figures mentality as an inexhaustible resource for the commodity of digital data. The data episteme therefore reifies the logic of ceaseless economic proliferation, and as such, abets technologized capitalism. In the event that the data episteme fulfills its teleological goal to become total, virtually all that is thinkable would yield to economic subordination. I present psychedelic science as a site where knowledge which challenges the data episteme is empirically necessary, and which, by extension, attests to the existence of that which cannot be economically subsumed. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the age of Big Data, scientists draw upon the ever-expanding quantities of data which are produced, circulated, and analyzed by digital devices every day. As data grow in number, digital tools gain in their ability to yield precise and faithful information about the objects they represent. It would appear that all forms of knowledge may one day be perfectly replicated in the form of digital data. This dissertation claims that certain forms of knowledge cannot be digitized, and that the existence of non-digitizable knowledge has important implications for both science and politics. I begin by considering the fact that digital tools can only produce knowledge about phenomena which permit digitization. I claim that this limitation necessarily restricts the sorts of information which digital devices are capable of generating. I also observe that the digital turn has inaugurated a novel mode of capitalist economic production based on the commodity of digital information. Thus, the increasing dependence of scientific authority on digital methods is also a concern for political economy. I argue that the reliance of scientific authority on digital data restricts the scope of scientific inquiry and makes ceaseless economic expansion appear both necessary and inevitable. It is therefore critical to indicate sites of research and practice where non-digitizable knowledge plays an essential role in informing scientific processes. Such an indication is not only pertinent to scientific research, but points up the ways in which data facilitate unregulated economic growth. Psychedelic drug research serves as my lens on digitality and political economy. Specifically, I explore the ways in which quantitative and computational methodologies have been used and critiqued by scientists who study the psychiatric benefit of psychedelics on human consciousness. Taking a historical approach, I demonstrate that psychedelic scientists have always faced the paradoxical task of translating the unusual and ineffable effects of psychedelics into discrete, measurable variables. This quandary has become more pronounced in the age of digital tool use, as such tools rest on the logic of metrical and discrete analysis. I suggest that the therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics can only be fully revealed by methodological techniques which explicitly address the epistemic limitations of digital data. Noting that the ascendance of Big Data is contemporaneous with a rise of interest in psychedelics as adjuncts to psychotherapy, I assert that psychedelic science provides abundant materials for a critique of the ostensive epistemic authority of digital data, which operates as an alibi for technologized capitalism.

Etude historique des conditions d’émergence du champ de recherches de la perception des risques ; analyse critique du paradigme psychométrique et de la théorie culturaliste, ainsi que des conceptions du risque qui les sous-tend. / Historical study of the emergence conditions of risk perception as a research field; critical analysis of the psychometric paradigm and cultural theory, as well as of the underlying risk conceptions.

Este trabalho versa sobre a tecnologia, atendo-se de modo particular, mas não exclusivo, a isso que no Brasil se chama de tecnologia social (TS). A tese que se buscará defender aqui é múltipla. Em primeiro lugar, ontológica e politicamente, sustentar-se-á que a tecnologia social é uma implementação não apenas tecnicamente legítima e autêntica, como social e ambientalmente urgente. Contudo, para que tal tipo de solução seja passível de ser desenvolvida, é necessário, de uma parte, que se desenvolvam conhecimentos científicos e engenheiris apropriados. Com isso, o segundo argumento, epistemológico, é que esses conhecimentos são passíveis de ser produzidos e que os mecanismos que podem tornar tal coisa possível não subvertem o ethos próprio da ciência ou da engenharia. De outra parte, TS e engenharia popular demandam também um perfil profissional específico, o do engenheiro educador (ou engenheiro popular). Essa é a terceira dimensão da tese que defendemos. Por fim, ontológica e existencialmente, proporemos que o caminho para superar o desencantamento substantivo do mundo (Weber), a entificação do Ser (em seu desvelamento tecnológico no qual nos encontramos presos, via enquadramento Heidegger), a ditadura da racionalidade instrumental (Horkheimer & Adorno) ou a autoprodução e o automatismo do desenvolvimento tecnológico (que nos aprisiona ou agencia quase que inapelavelmente Ellul) pode emergir precisamente de algo como a tecnologia social, por meio da incorporação dos valores e saberes populares à construção da realidade sociotécnica que decidimos nos dar. Esse quarto aspecto, nesses termos, reforça o primeiro, trazendo novos elementos para subsidiar-se o entendimento acerca da urgência, em nossos dias, de uma solução técnica como a tecnologia social. / This work discusses technology, giving special attention to this that is called social technology (ST) in Brazil. The thesis that is substantiated here is multiple. First, ontologically and politically, it will be argued that social technology is not only technically legitimate and authentic, but also socially and environmentally urgent. However, in order to be implementable, ST demands, on the one hand, specific engineering and scientific knowledge to be advanced. Thus, the second dimension of our thesis, epistemological, sustains the understanding that such knowledge can be produced and the mechanisms required to make such production possible do not corrupt the scientific or engineering ethos. On the other hand, ST and popular engineering also demand a specific professional profile, the educator engineer (or popular engineer). This is the third dimension of the argument we defend here. Finally, ontologically and existentially, it will be suggested that a way to overcome the substantial disenchantment of the world (Weber), the entification of Being (in its technological unveiling in which we found ourselves trapped, via enframing Heidegger), the dictatorship of instrumental rationality (Horkheimer and Adorno) or the self-production and automatism of technological development (Ellul) may precisely emerge from something like social technology. This would be so by dint of the incorporation of popular values and knowledge to the construction of the sociotechnical reality we decide to build. This fourth aspect, then, strengthens the first one, offering new supporting elements to the urgency claim associated with the development of ST in our days.

Este trabalho versa sobre a tecnologia, atendo-se de modo particular, mas não exclusivo, a isso que no Brasil se chama de tecnologia social (TS). A tese que se buscará defender aqui é múltipla. Em primeiro lugar, ontológica e politicamente, sustentar-se-á que a tecnologia social é uma implementação não apenas tecnicamente legítima e autêntica, como social e ambientalmente urgente. Contudo, para que tal tipo de solução seja passível de ser desenvolvida, é necessário, de uma parte, que se desenvolvam conhecimentos científicos e engenheiris apropriados. Com isso, o segundo argumento, epistemológico, é que esses conhecimentos são passíveis de ser produzidos e que os mecanismos que podem tornar tal coisa possível não subvertem o ethos próprio da ciência ou da engenharia. De outra parte, TS e engenharia popular demandam também um perfil profissional específico, o do engenheiro educador (ou engenheiro popular). Essa é a terceira dimensão da tese que defendemos. Por fim, ontológica e existencialmente, proporemos que o caminho para superar o desencantamento substantivo do mundo (Weber), a entificação do Ser (em seu desvelamento tecnológico no qual nos encontramos presos, via enquadramento Heidegger), a ditadura da racionalidade instrumental (Horkheimer & Adorno) ou a autoprodução e o automatismo do desenvolvimento tecnológico (que nos aprisiona ou agencia quase que inapelavelmente Ellul) pode emergir precisamente de algo como a tecnologia social, por meio da incorporação dos valores e saberes populares à construção da realidade sociotécnica que decidimos nos dar. Esse quarto aspecto, nesses termos, reforça o primeiro, trazendo novos elementos para subsidiar-se o entendimento acerca da urgência, em nossos dias, de uma solução técnica como a tecnologia social. / This work discusses technology, giving special attention to this that is called social technology (ST) in Brazil. The thesis that is substantiated here is multiple. First, ontologically and politically, it will be argued that social technology is not only technically legitimate and authentic, but also socially and environmentally urgent. However, in order to be implementable, ST demands, on the one hand, specific engineering and scientific knowledge to be advanced. Thus, the second dimension of our thesis, epistemological, sustains the understanding that such knowledge can be produced and the mechanisms required to make such production possible do not corrupt the scientific or engineering ethos. On the other hand, ST and popular engineering also demand a specific professional profile, the educator engineer (or popular engineer). This is the third dimension of the argument we defend here. Finally, ontologically and existentially, it will be suggested that a way to overcome the substantial disenchantment of the world (Weber), the entification of Being (in its technological unveiling in which we found ourselves trapped, via enframing Heidegger), the dictatorship of instrumental rationality (Horkheimer and Adorno) or the self-production and automatism of technological development (Ellul) may precisely emerge from something like social technology. This would be so by dint of the incorporation of popular values and knowledge to the construction of the sociotechnical reality we decide to build. This fourth aspect, then, strengthens the first one, offering new supporting elements to the urgency claim associated with the development of ST in our days.