Beyond Efficiency: Comparing Andrew Feenberg’s and Byung-Chul Han’s Philosophy of Technology

Abstract

In this chapter I will compare Andrew Feenberg’s philosophy of technology with that of the Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han to show that their diagnoses about the contemporary social and political status of technological development, as well as their prognoses about how to deal with it, differ radically. I argue that this radical difference is based on: (i) two different evaluations of modernity and, in particular, two different appraisals of both Martin Heidegger’s and Michel Foucault’s thought; (ii) an anti-essentialist stance about technology on Feenberg’s part, and an essentialist/reductive appraisal of technology on Han’s part; (iii) two different accounts of the Internet and of information technology. My aim is to show that Feenberg’s reflection represents a more solid and detailed analysis of the phenomenon of technology, from the point of view of its limitations and its potentials, as well as a critical corrective to Han’s radicalism, as far as outlining the realistic possibility for future political interventions.