Langdon Winner
American academic
Langdon Winner (born August 7, 1944) is an American political theorist, specializing in social and political issues connected with technological change in the modern age. He is the author of several books and a professor of humanities and social sciences in Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute’s department of science and technology studies. He has also been a reporter, rock music critic, and contributing editor for the magazine Rollling Stone.
Quotes
edit- What do philosophers need to know about technology? I mean, of course, philosophers who want to think and write about technology in fruitful ways. What kind of knowledge do we need to have? And how much?
- (1993). "Social constructivism: Opening the black box and finding it empty". Science as Culture 3 (3): 427–452. DOI:10.1080/09505439309526358. (presidential address delivered to the Biennial Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, March 1991)
- ... the arrival of any new technology that has significant power and practical potential always brings with it a wave of visionary enthusiasm that anticipates the rise of a utopian social order. ... From the coming of the steam locomotive, to the introduction of the telegraph, telephone, motion pictures, centrally generated electrical power, automobile, radio, television, nuclear power, guided missile, and the computer (to name just a few), this has been the recurring theme: celebrate! The moment of redemption is at hand.
- "Sow's Ears from Silk Purses: The Strange Alchemy of Technological Visionaries by Langdon Winner". Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2004. pp. 34–47. (quote from p. 34; edited by Marita Sturken, Douglas Thomas, and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach)
- ... In Benedictine monasteries of medieval Europe, spiritual and working life was divided into precise units of time, the canonical hours, as a way to magnify the strength of the monks' religious devotion. This regimen gave rise to a need for devices that could measure time: hence the development of the first simple, reliable clocks.
- Mumford, Lewis (2010). "Foreword by Langdon Winner". Technics and Civilization. University of Chicago Press. pp. ix–xiii. ISBN 0226550273. (quote from p. x of 2010 edition; 1st edition 1934)
