Science in the Context of Technology

What arguments would be sufficient to establish that we are now living in an age of technoscience? A brief clarification of what is and what is not meant by “technoscience” is followed by general historiographic considerations of what it takes to argue for an epochal break of any kind. After specifying what kind of argument might be required, the paper highlights two strategies for making a case for the age of technoscience. This leaves untouched the main busy of a philosophy of technoscience but underscores the warrant and cultural significance of such a task. If the philosophy of science served to idealize and valorize science as a social institution for the critical and public employment of reason, the philosophy of technoscience is needed to evaluate the promise and peril of advancing on the seemingly self-validating path of economic, social, and technical innovation.

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