As insightful and wise today as it was when originally published in 1954, Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society has become a classic in its field, laying the groundwork for all other studies of technology and society that have followed.
Ellul offers a penetrating analysis of our technological civilization, showing how technology—which began innocuously enough as a servant of humankind—threatens to overthrow humanity itself in its ongoing creation of an environment that meets its own ends. No conversation about the dangers of technology and its unavoidable effects on society can begin without a careful reading of this book.
Author(s): Jacques Ellul
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Year: 2021
Language: English
Commentary: retail
Tags: technology, culture, society, propaganda
Statement from the Publisher
Foreword
Translator’s Introduction
NOTE TO THE READER
FOREWORD TO THE REVISED AMERICAN EDITION
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION
CHAPTER I—Techniques
SITUATING THE TECHNICAL PHENOMENON
Machines and Technique
Science and Technique
Organization and Technique
Definitions
Technical Operation and Technical Phenomenon
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Primitive Technique
Greece
Rome
Christianity and Technique
The Sixteenth Century
The Industrial Revolution
CHAPTER II—The Characterology of Technique
TECHNIQUE IN CIVILIZATION
Traditional Techniques and Society
The New Characteristics
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNIQUE
Automatism of Technical Choice
Self-augmentation
Monism
The Necessary Linking Together of Techniques
Technical Universalism
The Autonomy of Technique
CHAPTER III—Technique and Economy
THE BEST AND THE WORST
The Influence of Technique on the Economy
Economic Consequences
THE SECRET WAY
The Economic Techniques of Observation
The Economic Techniques of Action
Planning and Liberty
THE GREAT HOPES
Economic Systems Confronted by Technique
Progress
Centralized Economy
The Authoritarian Economy
The Antidemocratic Economy
ECONOMIC MAN
CHAPTER IV—Technique and the State
THE STATE’S ENCOUNTERS WITH TECHNIQUE
Ancient Techniques
New Techniques
Private and Public Techniques
The Reaction of the State to Techniques
REPERCUSSIONS ON THE STATE
Evolution
The Technical Organism
The Conflict Between the Politicians and the Technicians
Technique and Constitution
Technique and Political Doctrines
The Totalitarian State
SUMMUM JUS: SUMMA INJURIA
REPERCUSSION ON TECHNIQUE
Technique Unchecked
The Role of the State in the Development of Modern Techniques
Institutions in the Service of Technique
CHAPTER V—Human Techniques
NECESSITIES
Human Tension
Modification of the Milieu and Space
Modification of Time and Motion
The Creation of the Mass Society
Human Techniques
REVIEW
Educational Technique
The Technique of Work
Vocational Guidance
Propaganda
Amusement
Sport
Medicine
ECHOES
Techniques, Men, and Man
L’homme-machine
The Dissociation of Man
The Triumph of the Unconscious
Mass Man
TOTAL INTEGRATION
Technical Anesthesia
Integration of the Instincts and of the Spiritual
The Final Resolution
CHAPTER VI—A Look at the Future
A Look at the Year 2000
BIBLIOGRAPHY
