Beyond the means? A critique of the postphenomenological account of technological mediation
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2025-08-29
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en
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This article critically examines the postphenomenological account of the normativity of technology, articulated as non-neutral “technological mediation” in opposition to the common “instrumentalist” view of technology as neutral. The first part analyses how Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek seek to move beyond Heidegger’s “essence of modern technology” through their empirical study of concrete technologies, arguing that this rejection ultimately undermines their normative aims. The second part elaborates that Heidegger’s essence of technology remains key to postphenomenology’s aims, suggesting that normative technological mediation is not an alternative to the instrumentalist view but rather the
continuous appeal of instrumentalism.
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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen