Homo Faber: Technology and Cognition

The course deals with man as a tool user and producer of technology, and the relationship between forms of consciousness, social life and technological culture. The course examines some technological revolutions (the Neolithic revolution, the development of writing and printing, the industrial revolution, the digital revolution) and illustrates how they precipitated new modes of perception and knowledge. It includes the study of the export of technology to the Third World (including literacy) and shows how the new technology functions as ‘conscioussness packages’ that transform existing forms of consciousness and cultural practices.

To develop a basic understanding of the relationship between technological development and social and cultural change.

Lectures/seminars (approx. 16 hours).