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Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations provides an introduction to the school of thought called postphenomenology and showcases projects at the cutting edge of this perspective. Postphenomenology presents a unique blend of insights from the philosophical traditions of phenomenology and American pragmatism, and applies them to studies of user relations to technologies. These studies provide deep descriptions of the ways technologies transform our abilities, augment our experience, and shape the world around us. This book proceeds with a preface by Don Ihde, postphenomenology's founder, and a detailed review of the main ideas of this perspective by the editors Robert Rosenberger and Peter-Paul Verbeek. The body of this volume is composed of twelve postphenomenological essays which reflect the expansive range, detail-orientation, and interdisciplinarity of this school of thought. These essays confront a broad assortment of topics, both abstract and concrete. Abstract topics addressed include metaphysics, ethics, methodology, and analysis of the notions of selfhood, skill training, speed, and political activism. Just a few of the concrete topics studied include human-like interactive robots, ethics education, image interpretation in radiology, science fiction tropes, transportation history, wearable computing, and organ donation protocols for brain-dead bodies. The volume concludes with constructive critiques of postphenomenology by Andrew Feenberg, Diane Michelfelder, and Albert Borgmann, all figures whose work is relevant to postphenomenological projects.
List of contents
1. A Field Guide to Postphenomenology, Robert Rosenberger & Peter-Paul Verbeek
2. Why Postphenomenology Needs a Metaphysics, Lenore Langsdorf
3. What Robotic Re-embodiment Reveals about Virtual Re-embodiment: A Note on the Extension Thesis, Kirk M. Besmer
4. Thinking Technology With Merleau-Ponty, Aud Sissel Hoel & Annamaria Carusi
5. Movies and Bodies: Variations of the Embodied Self in Science-Fiction Techno Fantasies, Marie-Christine Nizzi
6. Bodies as Technology: How Can Postphenomenologists Deal with the Matter of Human Technique?, Fernando Secomandi
7. Four Dimensions of Technological Mediation, Asle H. Kiran
8. Tracing the Tracker: A Postphenomenological Inquiry into Self-Tracking Technologies, Yoni Van Den Eede
9. A Century on Speed: Reflections on Movement and Mobility in the 20th Century, Søren Riis
10. Searching for Alterity: What Can We Learn From Interviewing Humanoid Robots? Frances Bottenberg
11. Postphenomenology of the Robot Medical Student, Chris Kaposy
12. Mediating Multiplicity: Brain-Dead Bodies and Organ Transplant Protocols, Adam M. Rosenfeld
13. Towards a Hermeneutics of Unveiling, Jan Kyrre Berg Friis
14. Making the Gestalt Switch, Andrew Feenberg
15. Postphenomenology with an Eye to the Future, Diane Michelfelder
16. Stability, Instability, and Phenomenology, Albert Borgmann
About the author
Edited by Rosenberger and Peter-Paul Verbeek - Contributions by Don Ihde; Lenore Langsdorf; Kirk M. Besmer; Aud Sissel Hoel; Annamaria Carusi; Marie-Christine Nizzi; Fernando Secomandi; Asle Kiran; Yoni Van Den Eede; Søren Riis; Frances Bottenberg; Chris
Summary
This book provides an introduction to postphenomenology, an emerging school of thought in the philosophy of technology and science and technology studies, which addresses the relationships users develop with the devices they use.
