Hand's End: Technology and the Limits of NatureHand's End offers a new philosophy of technology as the fundamental way in which humans experience and define nature—the tool as humanity extended. Rothenberg examines human inventions from the water wheel to the nuclear bomb and discusses theories of technology in the thought of philosophers including Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Marx, Heidegger, Spinoza, Mumford, and McLuhan. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994. Hand's End offers a new philosophy of technology as the fundamental way in which humans experience and define nature—the tool as humanity extended. Rothenberg examines human inventions from the water wheel to the nuclear bomb and discusses theories |
Contents
Knowing through Making | 1 |
Stir and Thrill | 9 |
The Circle of Intent and Result | 14 |
The Intention Moves | 19 |
Relocation Infinity? | 24 |
EXTENSIONS ORDER | 28 |
Extensions of Action | 31 |
Extensions of Thought | 34 |
The Machine Stops | 128 |
Intricacy Looks at Silence | 133 |
Viewing the Virtual | 152 |
BEFORE THE END | 162 |
Tools Unlovely to See | 165 |
Reticent Destroyers | 169 |
Between Utopia and Oblivion | 175 |
Unwanted Heat | 180 |
The Test | 43 |
The Humanity Which Remains | 46 |
NATURE AS CONTEXT | 54 |
Aristotle Swims in Natures River | 56 |
Spinoza Sees End in Beginning | 59 |
Bacon Turns Nature to Resource | 66 |
Marx in So Many Mirrors | 73 |
Heidegger Frames the Earths Picture | 79 |
The Myth and the Message | 86 |
Artifice Diverts Nature in Time | 105 |
NATURE IS MADE | 108 |
Hands on the Lathe of Heaven | 111 |
To Tear the Day to Shreds | 115 |
Engines Fuel for the Mind | 122 |
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Common terms and phrases
able abstract action Agostino Ramelli analog Aristotle Baruch Spinoza becomes Bomb build challenge chapter Christopher Alexander clock conceived concept consider constructed context continue cybernetic device direct Earth energy engine environment experience extend flow forces Francis Bacon goal grasp greenhouse effect Heidegger Heraclitus human intention Ibid idea imagine independent instrument Joseph Weizenbaum Karl Marx kind knowledge language Lewis Mumford limits live logic machine Marshall McLuhan Martin Heidegger Marx material McLuhan means mechanical ment mind motion move Mumford nature never nology nuclear objects once organic ourselves Paul Levinson perfection philosophy physical Plato possible precise problem progress pure reality realize reveals sense simply specific Spinoza suggest tech techne technical Technics and Civilization technique things thought tion transformed truth ture Turing Test understand universe vision wheel whole words