Acting artifacts

Abstract

During the past decade, the role of technological objects in society and in people's everyday lives has become a central theme in the philosophy of technology. Many authors have made analyses of the ways in which technological artifacts help to shape the ways in which humans experience reality and live their lives. A central theme in these analyses is 'mediation': artifacts are conceptualized in terms of their mediating role in the relationship between human beings and their environment. In this paper, I will draw together the main lines of thought that can be found in some recent approaches. This will result in a conceptual 'vocabulary' for understanding technological mediation. © 2006 Springer.