Back to the technologies themselves: phenomenological turn within postphenomenology

Abstract

This paper revives phenomenological elements to have a better framework for addressing the implications of technologies on society. For this reason, we introduce the motto “back to the technologies themselves” to show how some phenomenological elements, which have not been highlighted in the philosophy of technology so far, can be fruitfully integrated within the postphenomenological analysis. In particular, we introduce the notion of technological intentionality in relation to the passive synthesis in Husserl’s phenomenology. Although the notion of technological intentionality has already been coined in postphenomenology, it is “in tension” with the notion of technological mediation since there are still no clear differences between these two concepts and studies on how they relate one to another. The tension between mediation and intentionality arises because it seems intuitively reasonable to suggest that intentionality differs from mediation in a number of ways; however, these elements have not been clearly clarified in postphenomenology so far. To highlight what technological intentionality is and how it differs from mediation, we turn the motto “back to the things themselves” into “back to the technologies themselves,” showing how the technologies have to be taken into consideration by themselves. More specifically, we use the concept of passive synthesis developed by Husserl, and we apply it to technologies to show their inner passive activity. The notion of the passive synthesis enables to demonstrate how technologies are able to connect to a wider (technological) environment without the subjects’ activity. Consequently, we claim that technologies have their pole of action, and they passively act by themselves.

Introduction: Chinese and Japanese Postphenomenology

“…Moreover, both countries have a robust phenomenological tradition since phenomenologists such as Husserl and Heidegger deeply influenced Japanese and Chinese philosophers such as Nishida Kitaro and Xiong Wei. Thus, since postphenomenology can be seen as building upon the philosophy of technology and phenomenology 1 3 (Mykhailov & Liberati, 2023;Zwier et al, 2016), it is clear that its development in the two countries follows a similar path, even if separated.…”