What is technology? An instrument, a phone, a rocket, an electric car? An idea? A particular way of knowing the world? And what is its relationship to society: does technology shape society, or does society shape technology, or does that framing itself need to be rethought?

This course rigorously enquires these questions through the perspectives of philosophy, history, social anthropology, human evolution, and civilizational studies. Drawing on examples from the past and present, it asks what the relationship between technology and society could look like in the future. Central to the course is understanding technology through a threefold matrix of thinking, knowing and making.

Course Overview

The course is organized into two parts. The first introduces different meanings of technology and examines its relationship with society through philosophy, history and the social sciences. The second explores technology in relation to ethics, politics, engineering and robotics, encouraging students to critically examine how technology shapes human experience and how society, in turn, shapes technological development.