IB Philosophy 9.1.1 Nature and Role of Technology Key Definitions

(availability or openness) Gabriel Marcel's concept of being genuinely present and open to others as a condition of authentic human existence. Disponibilite requires attentive, responsive engagement with other persons in their irreducible particularity.

Gestell (enframing) is Heidegger's term for the essence of modern technology, the mode of revealing in which everything, including nature and humans, is disclosed as a standing reserve of resources available for exploitation.

Luciano Floridi's concept of the infosphere refers to the total informational environment in which humans now live, where the boundary between online and offline, human and artificial, has become so blurred that we are not merely users of information technologies but informational organisms embedded within them.

Ernst Kapp's theory of organ projection holds that technological tools are extensions of human organs, externalising our physical and cognitive capacities in material form. On this view, technology is not alien to human nature but a mirror of humanity, revealing our structures through the artefacts we create.

the ancient Greek concept of productive knowledge, referring to the capacity to bring something into existence through skilled making. For Aristotle, techne is distinguished from episteme (theoretical knowledge) and phronesis (practical wisdom) because it concerns the creation of artefacts that do not arise naturally. It combines knowledge of universal principles with the ability to apply them to particular cases, making it a form of rational productive capacity.

Technology refers broadly to any systematic application of knowledge, tools, or techniques to extend human capabilities and transform the natural or social environment.