Technology as a cultural phenomenon
The essence and content of technological culture
The expedient organization of human activity involves the selection of the necessary means and methods of action, planning and execution of a certain sequence of operations. This organizational side of human activity forms its technology.
The technology of human activity, unlike the activity of animals, is not given to man “by nature”, but is a cultural phenomenon. The niche it occupies in the cultural space is the area of technological culture.
Technological culture includes knowledge and regulations with the help of which human activity is carried out. This is its semantic, informative, content side. But, as in all areas of culture, it also has a material side - symbolic material in which its meanings are encoded and objectified.
As elsewhere in culture, the most important place here is occupied by verbal language - the most powerful sign system used by people. But in technological culture, a greater role than in other areas of culture is played by non-verbal forms of information coding, especially - functional signs, i.e. objects and processes included in human activity and carrying information about it (see Chapter 2, §3). Technological information does not always find expression in words: people often cannot convey in words the secrets of their craftsmanship, and their methods of action, skills, knowledge remain imprinted only in the acts of activity themselves, in tools, tools, mechanisms. Technology carries within itself the knowledge with the help of which it was created, but in order to verbalize, put into words this knowledge, you need to consider the machine as a “text” and be able to “translate” the meaning of this “metal text” into human language.
Technological culture took its first steps in the form of myth and magic. Magic technology– witchcraft rituals of calling rain, ensuring good luck in hunting, saving from evil spirits, etc. - relied on knowledge expressed in mythological ideas about the world. The ancient “magical” technological culture was expressed mostly in skills, its subject, material and technical basis was very narrow, and its “theoretical justification” was reduced to myths. The main role in the content of ancient technological culture was played by its regulatory (largely magical) component, while the cognitive (basically mythological) component was still underdeveloped and unreliable; the symbolic material in which technological information and skills were embodied and transmitted was, first of all, the actions of people, and the things they made - tools, household items, amulets, etc. - were used as sources of technological information to a lesser extent. Apparently, primitive people passed on technological knowledge to each other more often by demonstration, demonstration of actions, rather than by verbal explanations.
The further development of technological culture went in two directions.
On the one hand, the volume grew knowledge and skills, which led to their separation from mythology and magic. This was accompanied by the division of labor and the emergence of professions. Professional knowledge and skills of artisans, builders, artists, doctors, etc. the ancient Greeks called the word " techne", which literally meant "knowledge, skill, mastery." In this original meaning, the word “technique” is still used in Russian and other languages (“negotiation technique”, “violin playing technique”)
On the other hand, it expanded and improved subject inventory technological culture. New and more efficient types of tools were created, various devices and mechanisms were invented. The word “technology” began to be used to designate these material means of activity.
Technical knowledge for a long time - right up to the Renaissance - was mainly purely practical character and boiled down to rules, which must be adhered to when performing work. But gradually, in this knowledge, more and more space began to be occupied by information about the properties of materials and devices, used in work, about phenomena occurring in the process of production activities and the functioning of technical devices. Technical knowledge began to be transmitted not only through demonstration and oral instructions from the master to his students, but also in writing, incl. in books. Thus, the beginnings gradually emerged technical science. However, this was only scattered information and recommendations. Properties, phenomena, processes described, but almost nothing were not explained theoretically: There were no theories on the basis of which such an explanation could be given.
In modern times, technical knowledge developed in practical activity comes closer to theoretical science matured in the bosom of philosophy. As a result, science in its modern understanding was born. Astronomy, physics, mechanics, chemistry, biology have acquired scientific instruments that make it possible to carry out precise observations and complex experiments. Speculative natural science concepts began to acquire the “flesh and blood” of experimental facts and turn into theories substantiated by practice. And technical knowledge began to rely on mathematics and natural sciences, theoretically generalizing the accumulated experience on this basis. This led to the fact that they began to take shape in technical science, which over a couple of centuries turned into one of the most powerful branches of the tree of science.
Since the beginning of modern times, the sociocultural role of science has changed. Having separated from philosophy, science is moving closer to practice. Not only technical science, but also natural science and mathematics are gradually becoming increasingly oriented towards solving utilitarian problems - mainly industrial and military.
After the industrial revolution, which gave in the 18th century. impetus for the development of a large machine industry; technology is increasingly merging with science and by the twentieth century. is thoroughly imbued with it and becomes “scientific” in origin. The time when an illiterate “craftsman” could create wonderful technical discoveries is irrevocably a thing of the past. The increasing complexity of the technology of production processes, the transformation of science into the theoretical basis of production, the need to rely on scientific knowledge when designing, constructing, manufacturing and operating equipment - all this has brought the figure to a prominent place in society engineer.
Engineering is a special type of activity that lies at the junction Sciences And technology. This is an “intermediate” area connecting technology and science, where science is applied to solve technical problems, and technology is created and used with the help of science.
So, technological culture consists of three main components - technology, science and engineering. Technology represents the material “body” of technological culture, science is its intellectual “soul,” and engineering is its active, volitional principle, subordinating the “body” to the “soul.” These components of technological culture can be represented schematically in the form of “layers” located in cultural space parallel to the “cognitive-regulatory” plane (see Fig. 9.1).
The word "technology" comes from the Greek "techne" - art, skill, skill and "logos" - teaching, science. It is obvious that the “logos of technology” is a cultural concept associated with creative thinking and transformative human activity. It determines man’s place in nature and society, the scope of his intervention in natural processes.
Technological culture - fourth universal culture. It determines the worldview and self-understanding of modern man. This culture originated in the depths of anthropological culture. Man - a researcher, systematizer and creator of new things - drew strength from his own strength and confidence. The world of man gradually became the center of his attention, the sphere of his achievements. New ideas about the relationship to nature, new means of knowledge arose, which were no longer simply intermediaries between thought and nature. Active human intervention in natural processes began. Thus began the development of technological culture.
When characterizing this culture, two points must be taken into account. Firstly, human intervention in the course of natural processes is becoming permanent, taking on an unprecedentedly wide scale and irreversible consequences (reversal of river flows, land reclamation and irrigation, space exploration, etc.). Secondly, the human habitat - the Earth - ceases to be an inexhaustible source of various resources, a kind of “cornucopia”. The consumer attitude towards the world, rooted in the consciousness of the “king of nature,” is increasingly becoming the cause of a disorder in the natural balance, and ultimately it can lead to its final disruption.
In a technological culture, a person realizes himself not as the “king of nature,” but as the ruler of all things. What was previously inaccessible to the human mind is gradually becoming more and more clear. The idea of the temporary nature of the concept of the inaccessible, of the presence of not yet known phenomena and laws that will be discovered over time is affirmed.
Supported by modern technological means (including biotechnological ones), human activity diffuses in the sphere of action of the yet undiscovered laws of nature.
Man turned out to be able to force nature to manifest the action of some of its potentially existing laws. Now he lives in conditions of an open instrumental civilization, being aware of this. He created technological “organisms” - systems of interdependent components, the actions of which are aimed at achieving the goals set by their creator.
The power and range of modern technological tools - computers, industrial robots, controlled biotechnological reactions or nuclear reactors - are not comparable to their predecessors. On the one hand, they improve people’s lives, and on the other, they increase a person’s responsibility for their actions.
The technological concept of reality assumes the functioning of integrated systems, rather than combinations of random components or factors. The key concepts for understanding the essence of processes and phenomena in this case are the concepts of “biosphere”, “technosphere”, “noosphere”, “technological environment” and “ecosystem”. Modern reality is understood as a relational network created by man, within and beyond natural limitations, based on teleological reasoning, functional planning and rational implementation of what was planned. At the same time, everything that exists appears to be the result of purposeful construction, rather than limited growth.
Technical and technological design brings to life the planned functioning of such organisms, which can be considered as a serial, constantly repeating part of the system. The created means-systems function initially rationally and expediently
The desire for systematization inherent in technological thinking gives system-forming principles decisive importance. Modern man is convinced that similar principles can be found in the functioning of the entire surrounding world and that without them no system can exist. In this case, technological thinking turns to ideal structures, leaning towards a certain pre-established “normality” of processes and phenomena.
Technological culture faces an open civilization. If in previous universal cultures any ontology was based on bringing everything to a common denominator, now it is based on the awareness of the ability to overcome established boundaries.
Technology, on the one hand, is science, and on the other hand, practical human activity.
Previously, technology was understood as a set of processes, rules, skills used in the manufacture of any type of product in the field of industrial activity. Even earlier, D.I. Mendeleev gave a simpler and more accessible definition. He saw it as “finding ways to produce something useful from waste, useless”.
Both of these definitions are incomplete. M.B. Pavlova defines technology as “... a multidimensional concept that combines essential human characteristics - object, knowledge, process and will (motivations, needs, intentions, values). These elements are in a complex interaction, the result of which is the material world, created by man (from a spaceship to a sandwich)". Today we can talk about universal technology. Moreover, it is inherent not only in human activity, but also in natural processes (technology of growth and development of living organisms, technology of soil erosion, etc.).
So basically technological culture lies transformative activity of a person, in which his knowledge, skills and creative abilities are manifested, because Man is now able to influence natural processes.
Transformative activity today penetrates into all spheres of human life and activity - from industry and agriculture to medicine and pedagogy, leisure and management.
Technological culture can be considered in social (broad) and personal (narrow) terms:
In social (broad) terms, technological culture is the level of development of society based on the expedient and effective transformative activities of people, the totality of achieved technologies in material and spiritual production;
In a personal (narrow) sense, technological culture is the level of a person’s mastery of modern ways of knowing and transforming himself and the world around him.
Technological culture is one of the fundamental components of general culture. Therefore, it expresses the achieved level of development of the transformative activity of man and society as a whole.
Technological culture, being one of the universal cultures, influences all aspects of human life and society. It forms a certain (technological) view of nature, technology, society and man and manifests itself in a technological worldview.
Technological culture has epistemological consequences and leaves its mark on the way and nature of human thinking. It defines the goals and objectives of education for the younger generation, aimed at equipping young people with the knowledge and skills of transformative activities and nurturing the necessary personal qualities.
In the context of increasing human intervention in the development of natural and social processes, the main questions of ethics take on new meanings, and the process of formation of technoethics is underway.
In technological culture, aesthetics plays an important role, which contributes to the development of a person’s aesthetic attitude to the process and results of transformative activity.
An integral expression of the level of technological culture is the totality of achieved technologies of material and spiritual production, including the technological environment and methods of transformative activity.
Graphically, the structure of technological culture can be represented as follows.
Thus, in a generalized form under technological culture should be understood the level of development of human transformative activity, expressed in the totality of achieved technologies of material and spiritual production and allowing him to effectively participate in modern technological processes on the basis of harmonious interaction with nature, society and the technological environment, i.e. comfort of the triad: nature - society - technosphere.
Technological culture is the basis and most important indicator of the level of development of society and production, incl. material and spiritual well-being of a person.
Technological culture Technological worldview Technological ethics Structure of technological culture Contents Technological thinking Technological aesthetics (design) Technological education Human focus on transformative activities to create material and spiritual values Organized learning process, the result of which is readiness for transformative activities System of technological views on the world, nature, society and humans Assessment of created technosystems from the point of view of their compliance with the norms of ethical partnership Aesthetic attitude of a person to the means, process and results of transformative activities
Technological culture of the teacher Technological worldview Uses concepts from the social, psychological, pedagogical and human sciences as tools for solving the problems facing him Technological ethics Culture of behavior of the teacher Activities are related to harmonious relationships with students, colleagues, parents, regulated by laws, charters Structure of technological culture Contents Technological thinking is able to organize the cognitive activity of its students, the ability to form a creative person, combining the qualities of an educator, methodologist, and psychotherapist; it is able to work in extraordinary conditions. Technological aesthetics (design) actively realizes its creative abilities and rich personal potential, participates in processes based on harmonious interaction with nature and society. Technological education must have good knowledge and mastery of pedagogical technologies, the purpose of which is to increase the efficiency of the educational process, to ensure the achievement of planned learning outcomes; has cognitive abilities, adaptability, flexibility and mobility
1. Give an example of technology 2. Give an example of a specialist in the selected technology 3. Describe the main components of the technological culture of the selected specialist. 4.Formulate a conclusion about the role of the technological culture of the selected specialist for society. 5. Format it in the form of a diagram “Structure of technological culture” 6. Save the completed work as a file Class_Last Name_DZ3 (for example, 10A_Ivanov_DZ3.ppt) and send it using an electronic diary or to the school server via the gymnasium website Home/Homework/Upload homework to the server /Login (from the Internet) Homework 3
The essence and content of technological culture
Technology as a cultural phenomenon
Technology in a broad sense refers to the organizational side of any activity. Technological culture includes knowledge and regulations with the help of which human activity is carried out. Main forms of technological culture:
♦ Technique.
♦ The science.
♦ Engineering.
Formation and development of technological culture
1. Magic technologies. In them, the main role is played by regulators (magical), the cognitive aspect (mythological knowledge) is underdeveloped. The sign code is more in actions than in tools and objects of activity.
2. Growth of technology - skills and knowledge, subject inventory.
3. Technical knowledge. First - about the rules, then - about the properties of materials and devices. Description, without explanatory theories.
4. The convergence of technical knowledge with theoretical science. The emergence of technical sciences. Technology becomes “scientific” - created with the help of science.
5. The emergence of engineering as a link connecting technology with science.
6. The rapprochement of science with practice - the orientation of science towards solving practical problems, its transition from the sphere of spiritual culture to the field of technological culture.
Technology represents the material “body” of technological culture, science is its intellectual “soul,” and engineering is its active, volitional principle, subordinating the “body” to the “soul.”
Features of technological culture:
1.Aims at the questions: what? (knowledge) and how? (regulators).
2. Utilitarian character (as opposed to spiritual culture).
3. Plays a subordinate, service role in relation to spiritual and social culture.
4. It is a universal and indispensable condition for any cultural activity (in any activity there is technology).
Appendix 443
5. Evolution from mysticism (magic) to rationality.
Technique- any means and methods of activity that are invented by people to achieve any goal (always an artifact, something artificially created).
Subject- material means of human activity.
Performing- methods, techniques, mastery of performing actions (technology).
Differences between drive and technical objects:
Functions of technology in culture
1. Creation of a cultural environment human habitation, the “material body” of culture.
2. A means of applying cultural achievements to solving practical problems - a response to the “social order” of culture.
3. Creation of cultural tools - means and methods of activity.
4. The technique is cultural code,“information accumulator”, a means of storing and transmitting it.
Image of technology in culture
Image of technology- the cultural idea of it.
♦ In primitive culture: endowed with magical properties.
♦ In ancient times: a creation of the mind, inventive talent is a gift from the gods.
♦ In the religious culture of the Middle Ages: a condition of human existence given by God; technical innovations are condemned as attempts to deviate from the canons established by God.
♦ Since the Renaissance, technology begins to be looked at as the most important factor in social progress.
♦ A wave of negative attitude towards technology in the first third of the 19th century (Luddism).
♦ National differences in the image of technology.
♦ In Russia, foreign, “infidel” technology arouses suspicion and distrust among peasants.
♦ After the October Revolution - praise of the power of technology.
♦ In the 20th century - the struggle of two trends - technicalism(technophilia)And anti-technicism(technophobia). Technicism portrays technology as good, anti-technicism as evil.
Application
Dangers of technological progress:
1. Impoverishment of the spiritual life of humanity.
2. Turning a person into a slave of technology.
3. Destruction of the natural basis of human existence; man is not a part of nature, but its master.
4. The danger of self-destruction of humanity due to careless handling of technology.
5. The threat of self-poisoning of humanity as a result of the use of artificial substitutes.
Ways to overcome negative trends in technological progress:
1. Development of science and engineering.
2. Development of spiritual and social culture.
3. Improving the company management system.
The science
The science- three meanings:
♦ a special body of knowledge;
♦ special type of activity;
♦ a special branch of social labor.
Scientific knowledge- its features:
1. Rationality all provisions and conclusions; everything should be understandable by reason, and not by faith.
2. Objectivity, impersonality; truth does not depend on beliefs and prejudices.
3. Reproducibility and Verifiability result by any researcher under similar conditions.
4. Logical rigor, accuracy and unambiguity.
5. Logical relationship various elements of scientific knowledge, science is a logically ordered system.
Scientific activity
♦ The main type is research. Other types: collecting information on the research topic, preparing the necessary equipment, recording research results, etc.
♦ Means of scientific activity: instruments, instruments, experimental installations, norms and ideals of description and explanation, justification and evidence, construction and organization of scientific knowledge.
Science as a branch of social labor
♦ Institutions and organizations - institutes, laboratories, academies...
♦ System of scientific communications - scientific publications, magazines, patent service, conferences...
Appendix 445
♦ Differentiation of professions and specialties.
♦ Science as a market. Selling knowledge. Competition.
Periodization of the development of science
1. I century BC e. - XVI century AD e. - period pre-science. The accumulation of knowledge, the first philosophical ideas about nature.
2. XVI-XVII centuries - era scientific revolution. Formation of the foundations of modern natural science. The emergence of scientific methodology. The identification of science as a separate field of activity, the emergence of a scientific community. Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Hooke, Leibniz, Newton.
3. XVIII-XIX centuries - classical science. Education of individual disciplines. The emergence of technical sciences, science becomes the engine of progress.
4. XX century - postclassical science. Revolutionary discoveries at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries shook the foundations of a number of sciences (the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, genetics). Since the 2nd half of the 20th century, there has been a huge scale of implementation of discoveries into practice, reducing the time from discovery to application.
Sociocultural landmarks of science
♦ Truth and benefit. A scientist needs truth, society needs benefit.
♦ Autonomy and social control. The autonomy of science - for the freedom to choose topics, methods, and goals of research - is a condition for its development. But social control is to ensure that research does not harm society.
♦ Neutrality and social responsibility. In the past, the ideological neutrality of scientists in matters of religion, ethics, and politics saved science from external pressure. Nowadays there is a need for social responsibility of scientists for the consequences of their activities.
Society's attitude towards science
♦ Until modern times, science in public opinion was an eccentric and incomprehensible activity.
♦ In modern times: the real force driving the development of modern civilization is rationalism, technicalism, scientism. Irrationalism and mysticism, technophobia and anti-scientism are a reaction to this force.
Engineering
Specifics of engineering activities
♦ Practical activity - knowledge is used to change reality.
♦ Related to decision technical tasks.
♦ Requires scientific knowledge.
Engineering is a combination of science and practice.
Application
Historical evolution of engineering culture
♦ Primary engineering. Design and invention of primitive technology. In the role of cognitive basis - myths (performing the same function as science).
♦ Engineering develops in alliance with art, craft, ancient science as technica ars- the art of creating new things.
♦ Renaissance - the development of engineering (architecture, mining, military science, weapons creation), the use of scientific achievements. The emergence of engineering professions. Craft-artistic engineering is being replaced by rational-scientific engineering.
♦ In modern times - an increase in the need for engineers; training of engineers in special educational institutions; high status of the engineering profession.
♦ 20th century: engineering is one of the most popular professions; increasing the level of technological culture and decreasing the prestige of the profession. Stages of engineering development:
1. Predominance prescription aspect: the engineer knows How do work; insufficient understanding of the essence of processes (Why one way and not another).
2. Dominance subject aspect: to justify the methods: you need to know What what a technical object is, what processes occur in it; increasing the role of science.
3. Increasing importance human aspect: taking into account the peculiarities of the interaction of technology with people.
Sphere of modern engineering
In the 20th century, engineering went beyond its traditional sphere - industrial production: agricultural, medical, pharmaceutical, genetic, animal and bioengineering, environmental engineering, social engineering, etc. appeared.
Engineering in a broad sense
♦ Trends in the development of engineering culture: expansion And universalization.
♦ Engineering in a broad sense- any activity aimed at applying science to practice, at developing technology using scientific methods.
♦ Since the 20th century - "postclassical" engineering.
Horizons of engineering culture
Further expansion and universalization is the departure of the theoretical base of engineering beyond the boundaries of science, and perhaps the inclusion of philosophy in its theoretical base, along with science.
Prospects for the expansion of engineering culture into the field of creativity.
Types of culture
Technological culture
Today, the concept of culture covers all aspects of human activity and society. Therefore, they distinguish between political, economic, legal, moral, environmental, artistic, professional and other types of culture. A fundamental component of general culture is technological culture.
Technological culture can be understood as the level of development of human transformative activity, expressed in the totality of achieved technologies of material and spiritual production and allowing him to effectively participate in modern technological processes on the basis of harmonious interaction with nature, society and the technological environment.
Technological culture, being one of the types of universal culture, influences all aspects of human life and society. It forms a technological worldview, which is based on a system of technological views on nature, society and man. An integral part of it is technological thinking, associated with the individual’s generalized reflection of the scientific and technological environment and the mental ability for transformative activity.
An integral part of technological culture is also technological aesthetics, which is expressed in design knowledge, skills and abilities to carry out transformative activities according to the laws of beauty.
Technological culture influences the tasks and content of education of the younger generation. The general education system also provides technological training to students, the purpose of which is to develop a technological culture and readiness for transformative activities using scientific knowledge. Gurevich P.S. Culturology: Textbook. manual.- M., 1996.-287 p.
Human society
The manifestation of various human qualities capable of transforming the environment and improving the world around us is the set of cultures that are embodied in the concept of “technological culture.” From the perspective of modern concepts of the development of human society, in the field of view of which are the rational abilities of man, his creative approach to everything that surrounds him, his creative self-expression, the concept of “technological culture” personifies a new layer of culture, indicating a high level of abilities and scientific knowledge in the implementation by a person of any technological process or project in both the social and industrial spheres of activity. Drach G.V. Culturology. Rostov-on-Don, 1996. - 325 p.
System of technological education in fostering technological culture in the educational process
One of the most important goals of the technological education system in fostering a technological culture in the educational process is to foster the need for them to master a system of scientific knowledge. Based on scientific knowledge, new technologies are born, leading to abundance and prosperity of society. In turn, standard philosophy, together with standardization, must ensure the creation and implementation of effective tools for influencing production, the processes of resource consumption and resource saving, the improvement of societies and the protection of spheres of existence from the omnipotence of technology.
Continuity of education, as a phenomenon of technologization of society and the dissemination of scientific knowledge, has become a leading factor in development and expanded the scope of application of technology.
Mastering technological culture in the context of technological education means mastering functional methods and methods of assimilation of technological knowledge necessary in any activity, i.e., an algorithm for transformative activity. As an integrative foundation of technology education, it includes two main components - the design process and the manufacturing process.
Nurturing a person’s technological culture in the educational process is also associated with the ethical problem of a person’s responsibility for his actions in technological situations and relationships, when much depends on his morality, rationality and responsibility. Technological culture is also ethics, it is a new philosophy, a philosophy of a new vision of the world. Standard Sophy can become a unifying and centralizing science of the optimal interactions of various aspects of technical civilization among themselves and with the environment and will contribute to the establishment of possible and necessary restrictions on the technical development of civilization among themselves and with the environment with the establishment of possible and necessary restrictions on the technical development of civilization in relationships with the atmosphere, geo-, bio- and noospheres. In turn, the standard will become a document systematizing knowledge about reality, since the gigantic changes that have occurred on our planet since the Stone Age concern especially ecology, and in recent decades, biology. The consequences of human technological activity on the planet (for example, the greenhouse effect, natural disasters, pollution of water bodies due to oil spills, etc.) require both the establishment of strict rules and balanced, reasonable human actions. Galenko S.P. Conceptual foundations of education policy in Russia // Culture. - Civilization. - Education. - Tver, 1996. - 81 p.