The problem of technique: Homo faber, mysticism and decadence. Machinist culture in Oswald Spengler and Henri Bergson

Abstract

This article offers a compared analysis of the problema of technology in Oswald Spengler and Henri Bergson, authors of Man and technics and The two sources of morals and religión, respectively. In general, this paper is focused on the main topics of agreement and the main philosophical divergences between both. This is a threefold text. Section 1, shows the different anthropological visions held by these two authors, so related to the topic of technology since both are defenders of the definition of humans as homo faber. Secondly, I show the different historical interpretations of the problem of technics (origins and specificity of the Western phenomenon of technology). In the end, I reach to the historical context of these two books. Is technology a symbol of the decadence of modernity? At this point, the fatalist Spenglerian position is opposite to the Bergsonian one.