The Technological System
Foreword by Daniel Cérézuelle
Translated by Lisa Richmond
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
378 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.75 in
- Paperback
- 9781532615252
- Published: June 2018
$45.00 / £40.00 / AU$62.00
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Some 20 years after writing The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul realized how the totalistic dimensions of our modern technological milieu required an additional treatment of the topic. Writing amidst the rise of books in the 1970s on pollution, over-population, and environmental degradation, Ellul found it necessary, once again, to write about the global presence of technology and its far-reaching effects. The Technological System represents a new stage in Ellul's research. Previously he studied technological society as such; in this book he approaches the topic from a systems perspective wherein he identifies the characteristics of technological phenomena and technological progress in light of system theory. This leads to an entirely new approach to what constitutes the most important event of our society which has decisive bearing on the future of our world. Ellul's analysis touches on all aspects of modern life, not just those of a scientific or technological order. In the end, readers are compelled to formulate their own opinions and make their own decisions regarding the way a technique-based value system affects every level of human life.
Jacques Ellul (1912–94) was a French law professor, social theorist, and lay theologian, teaching at the University of Bordeaux, France. Among his 58 published books, his best-known works include The Technological Society, Propaganda, The Humiliation of the Word, and Hope in Time of Abandonment.
"The Technology System was an important attempt by Ellul to revisit his analysis in The Technological Society. It remains important to any full understanding of Ellul's social criticism, which itself remains a challenge for any substantial understanding of the modern condition."
Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines
"The Technological System updated and renewed Ellul’s reflection on the autonomy of technique by drawing upon the ideas of technological environment, information, and system, which thinkers such as Simondon and Leroi-Gourhan had been developing in the intervening years."
Daniel Cérézuelle, from the new foreword to this book