Book Reviews

like ‚Philosophy and Care for the Soul‛, ‚…Care for the Psyche‛,
‚Mythobiography as a Therapy‛, and ‚’Longing-Law’ and Its Pathologies‛; the
last explained as ‚a cultural configuration that deifies desire and turns it into a
‘law’‛ (p.69), where the loss of the term ‚sacrifice‛ is explained and criticised. All
of it bears the normal mark of theoretical/philosophical reflection, and does not
draw noticeably on the framework presented. He does not always explain his
claims, but gives long stretches of text with a ‚moreover‛ or a ‚this‛, where it is
sometimes unclear what ‚this‛ refers to. Although it is clear that a consistent line
of thought is followed, and that at the bottom there lies a harsh critique of
contemporary society and Western civilisation, this style of writing makes the
reader work hard.
I am left disappointed because of the good intentions in the framework,
which after all is clearly stated in the introductory parts of the book, and
wondering if ‚universally positive‛ philosophical knowledge could not have been
described just as precisely, and philosophy renewed just as positively, by
concentrating more on the (philosophical) details of (philosophical) daily life.

Helle Nyvold
University of Bergen, Norway
Helle.Nyvold@fof.uib.no

Val Dusek

Philosophy of Technology: an Introduction

Oxford: Blackwell, 2006, pp. v + 244

ISBN 1-4051-1163-1 (pb), $32.95, £18.99

This ambitious book attempts to present an overview of a relatively young and
amorphous sub-discipline, that is, the philosophy of technology. It is written and
structured in the manner of a standard textbook—newly-introduced names and
terms appear in boldface, tangential topics are discussed in special ‘boxed’
passages, and each chapter concludes with a list of "study questions". Dusek is
obviously at pains to write with maximum clarity for the sake of undergraduates
who may be required to read his book.
This is perhaps the first course-book to be written on the philosophy of
technology, leaving Dusek a free hand to determine the scope and internal logic of
his topic. He rises to the challenge in a spirit of breathtaking disciplinary
expansionism, offering reasoned justifications for the wide diversity of issues
included in his book. Philosophy of science must be outlined, since technology is
often dependent on science. Plato, Bacon, and others are mentioned as forerunners
of technocratic social and political thought. Artificial intelligence is a kind of
technology and it has been the subject of much contemporary philosophical
debate that is ripe for the picking. Environmentalists have their qualms about
technology, so that environmental ethics can also be gobbled up by this new field.

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 Book Reviews

The ‘rationality debates’ sparked by Evans-Pritchard's anthropological study of

Azande magic touched upon the question of the universality of instrumental
reason, which is arguably identifiable with technological reason, adding another
twelve pages to the book. Heidegger's discussion of tools, Hannah Arendt's
work/labour distinction, feminist views on technology, and anti-technological
ideologies are also among the topics covered.
Dusek is to be commended for writing in an informed and lucid manner
about such a wide variety of issues and authors. He moves with apparent ease
from ancients to moderns, from analytic philosophy to Continental, from
phenomenology to neural connectionism, from the history of Chinese science to
social constructionism. Certain themes, such as the search for a definition of
technology, do reappear as leitmotifs throughout the book. However, Dusek does
not really work out a grand logical map of issues in the philosophy of technology
of the kind one would expect from an introduction to a better established (or less
wide-ranging) area in philosophy. What he does give us is a wide overview of
philosophical (broadly understood) discussions of technology (broadly
understood) in all their varieties. Comprehensiveness has its price in depth; only a
volume of monstrous proportions could do justice to such a wide range of topics.
Occasionally, but only occasionally, Dusek's quest for comprehensiveness lapses
into something more resembling a bibliographical essay than an introductory text.
Despite these drawbacks, his book seems to be the best place to start for anyone
trying to put together a course on the philosophy of technology, or simply
interested in gaining an appreciation of the scope of this new field.

Berel Dov Lerner

Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel
bdlerner@gmail.com

Martin Heidegger

The Essence of Truth (Originally published as Vom Wesen der

Wahrheit, 1988, Vol 34 /Gesamtausgabe)
Transl. Ted Sadler

New York: Continuum, 2002, pp. 252

ISBN: 0-826-45923-4 (hb), $99.95, £75.00

ISBN: 0-826-47704-6 (pb), $23.95, £11.99

This is a treatise in two parts, based on lectures given by Heidegger in 1931–1934
at the University of Freiburg, establishing the difference between truth as
unhiddenness of beings, and truth as the correctness of propositions. It discusses
Plato’s allegory of the cave and the Platonic eros, or love of truth, in fine detail. It
attempts to define the essence of truth in a manner that produces a rigorous

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