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[timelets]

Recent philosophy of technology examines the way that our technologies form the background, context, and medium for our lives, shaping our culture and the environment, altering patterns of human activity, and influencing who we are and how we live. If there is a single, over-arching theme to recent philosophy of technology, it is the attempt to find a balance between the technical and social aspects of technology. If the narrowly construed “instrumental” meaning of technology understands it only terms of technical properties, techniques, and precise knowledge, the broader (and more accurate) understanding of technology includes the full range of cultural, economic, political, and legal dimensions – in addition to technical factors – that form the technological character of a society.

--- David M. Kaplan, Paul Ricoeur and the Philosophy of Technology. Journal of French Philosophy
Volume 16, Numbers 1 and 2, Spring-Fall 2006.