SKILLS AND TOOLS: A PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON TECHNOLOGY

Culture should be seen as the first nature of human beings. However, the rich diversity of cultural objects present within the life world of humans presupposes the all-embracing role of tools and technology. What appears to be unique and distinctive in human tool-making is the innovation to use tools in the production of other tools. Simpson even discerns in this ability a defining trait: humans are "the only living animal that uses tools to make tools." Against this background, attention is given to prominent scholars and their views on technology and its development. It starts with the philosophy of Descartes and Hobbes and proceeds by considering the views of Dijksterhuis, Von Bertalanffy, Heidegger, Weber, Habermas and Ellul - with special attention given to the rise of machine technology. The Enlightenment ideal of progress is related to an over-estimation of technology present in what Schuurman calls technicism, which ought to be understood in terms of the dialectic between nature and freedom in modern philosophy. The technocrats assume universal cultural laws while the revolutionary utopians accept an open future for human freedom. In the final part of the article an assessment is given of some implications entailed in the preceding analysis. It is noted that technology is not "applied science" and that technology and tools should be understood in terms of both subject-subject relations and subject-object relations. Since subjects and objects are determined and delimited by applicable cultural norms and principles, attention is also given to such principles, intimately connected to an account of the meaning of technology. In conclusion it is pointed out that the nature of technology and the all-pervasive use of tools confirm the opening remark regarding culture as the first nature of human beings.