The Critical Theory of the Common Good, Technology, and the Corona Tracking App

Abstract

This chapter presents a critical theory of the common good and applies it to technology. For this purpose, the notions of theory, critique, and technology are examined in detail. Section 3.1 addresses two major questions concerning (scientific and philosophical) theories: how they relate to reality and how to interpret the meaning of their central concepts. The second section develops a critical theory of the common good. Its two basic ideas are: the nonlocality of the meaning of theoretical and value concepts and a conception of public interests based on a substantive, multidimensional account of democracy. Section 3.3 then defines the notion of technology and examines the implications of the critical theory of the common good for the case of technologies. The critique of technology is illustrated by a detailed analysis and assessment of the Dutch debate on a specific technology, the corona tracking app, during the first phase of the corona crisis in the spring and summer of 2020. In developing these ideas and arguments, I engage with the work of other critical theorists, in particular Andrew Feenberg, Jürgen Habermas, Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault.