Commodification, Technoculture, and the Human: Rethinking Technology

COMMODIFICATION, TECHNOCULTURE, AND THE HUMAN: RETHINKING TECHNOLOGY

Third Workshop in Social and Political Thought at Michigan State University
with Andrew Feenberg, Donna Haraway, and Paul Thompson

October, 23/24, 2010
Saturday: 9am-6pm, Sunday: 9am-1pm
http://www.msu.edu/~lotz/workshop2010/index.htm

An important connection explored in the humanities concerns the degree to which technological rationality changes our lives, whether in terms of our behavior, our conceptions of who and what human animals and non-human animals are, or the goals we set for ourselves. What are some of the new ways of living brought on by these changes? Are such changes consistent with the precepts of an inclusive democracy? Or have they unacceptably commodified our social, political, and cultural relationships? Do we now live in a world where what is understood as a meaningful life is in peril because technology and commodification are all that remain?  This workshop in social and political thought will be dedicated to bringing important contemporary scholarship to MSU to address these questions with keynote addresses, commentaries, and other workshop activities. It demonstrates that philosophy and the humanities are central in understanding the world we live in.

Speakers

Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser); Philosophy of Technology, Social-Political Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, author of Critical Theory of Technology (1991), Questioning Technology (1999), Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History (2005)

Donna Haraway (University of California, Santa Cruz); Feminism, Science and Technology Studies; Animal Studies, author of A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century (1985), Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989), When Species Meet (2008)

Paul Thompson (Michigan State University), Social-Political Philosophy, Ethics and Agriculture, Philosophy of Technology, Continental Philosophy, Pragmatism, author of The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics (1995), The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism (2000), and The Agrarian Vision: Sustainability and Environmental Ethics (2010).

Tamra Frei (Michigan State University); Ethics, Kant, Modern Philosophy

Todd Hedrick (Michigan State University); Critical Theory, Habermas, Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy, author of Rawls and Habermas. Reason, Pluralism, and the Claims of Political Philosophy (forthcoming)

Hilde Lindemann (Michigan State University), Feminism, Bioethics, Moral Psychology; author of An Invitation to Feminist Ethics (2005), Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair (2001)

Organization and RSVP

Prof. Christian Lotz
Prof. Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University
Dept. of Philosophy
503 South Kedzie Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
517.355.4490 (Dept.)
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