Etymology of Technology
Technology
is the study of the systematic application of techniques, devices, implements
and knowledge of materials used to alter the conditions of human existence.
Teknh is the GREEK word from which technique or tool is derived. It literally means to join or to fit together. Carpenters used to join two pieces of wood together by dovetailing two parts to one another. One section was the inverse of the other so the protruding portion fit snugly into the recessed portion. As with weaving or joining two things together, there is both an artistic and a sexual overtone to the word TEkne -- Tekton. Both the performance done with some artistry and the process of creating something new from joining pieces or parts together, are implied by the use of techne; hence the French and English word technique.
Simply technology is the study of how tools, devices,
instruments, and parts fit together in a functionally organized whole
for the accomplishment of specific tasks or intentions.
On an apparent or formal level technology is the study of how we use of tools to solve problems. But beneath the surface, as an underlying characteristic, technology is also a mesh of tools that we use to manage the world. The above photo of Los Angeles suggests the extent to which the scale of modern technology dominates the landscape.
Technological literacy involves the ability
of students to understand
relations among artifacts and how technical knowledge, ideas, institutions, people, and behavioral norms work together to express desires that characterize the ETHOS of a culture.
Tools are not merely
amoral instruments, but are 
expressions of a social psychology and an individual gestalt, so it is
important to understand what a culture cherishes.
That is what do members of a society do that is rewarded and what is punished,
banned or restricted. Those rewards and punishments will reveal the characteristics
that a culture reveres and those traits it abhors.
Thus understanding the ethos affords a better understanding of how technology
conveys human desires to order the world. Ethology with respect to how
tools are used also reveals a desire to liberate forces to accomplish
work. In the west especially, but originally in China and the Near East,
technology was used to master, wind and water, or the otherwise unobtainable
energy of falling water, or wind, or electricity in places where these
natural forces were readily apparent.
Because of the complexity of the tools used to build water mills and wind mills, these devices formed a sophisticated tool complex. The future development of hydraulic based tools and the mill wright as a practice eventually led to engineering which is still is applied today to serve socially approved and desirable ends such as sanitation and pumps.
Tools are complex because their meaning can be understood to have three dimensions
Understanding cause and effect is complex, in itself:
The purpose of anything according to Aristotle was its TELOS [ Teleos, telos ]; the end, goal, purpose, or meaning of an action, person, place, or thing. The purpose of technology is to bring about a desired outcome, or to replace existing conditions with a different set devices and tools to solve problems.
A means to some desired end, especially understanding the means needed to attain an anticipated outcome, or purpose. Hence designed for a particular purpose of function.
By understanding all of the causes of events it is easier to examine the
complexity of human motivations. Of these reasons why events occur as
they do, the immediate and underlying causes are important. They are clues
that lead to particularly the ultimate cause for actions. The ultimate
or end purpose of some process, intrigued Aristotle.
Believing we lived in a rational universe, Aristotle described four causes for all events. These are:
- The formal cause: wind moves the windmill's arms.
- The proximate (or immediate) cause: abrupt air pressure changes.
- The underlying cause: warm air rises as it's molecules expand & cooler air replaces the warmer, rising air.
- Teleological (after teleos) cause: the intent, plan, or end purpose, the result or final reason; the purpose served by people and things. the air seeks an equilibrium.
He was impressed by his study of embryological development in humans and animals. Thus he concluded that the formal, immediate, and underlying causes for change in people and things was the outward, persistent and current expression of some deeper and hidden facet of change that moved toward some end. That end point he called the teleos.
Aristotle's approach suggests that all tools, technology, and artifacts all have a purpose. Since the Greeks, the twin purposes of art and artificial creations were both use and beauty. These twin values are cherished in western culture. They are attributed to natural or ecologically valuable things when physical or biological ingredients are combined by human skill, imagination, and ingenuity to create a work of art, science, engineering or construction.
Tool use requires, practical dexterity, application of forethought to solving problems for which the artifacts, devices, or utensils are designed, and the ultimate purpose to which these instruments or engineering are directed by our ethos, ethics and beliefs.
meaning | ethology | cause of changes in conditions | facets of technical knowledge | purpose
A threefold conceptual framework for describing technology involves:
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Tools themselves form and function |
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System for using devices, instruments, utensils, in an organizational context. |
Cultural values of a society action, contemplation, subjugation, control, or accumulation of wealth |
All three facets of technology are necessary to describe the power of techniques and technical proficiency in our personal and collective lives.
| Planes | facets | influences |
| Technical | Formal | and functional |
| Organizational | Systemic | and behavioral |
| Cultural | Symbolic | and ethological |
meaning | ethology | cause of changes in conditions | facets of technical knowledge | purpose
The above planes intersect at the personal level like three dimensions in a room define the space available for activity to take place in the room.
Science diagram | Science as rarified knowledge
Science Index | Site Analysis | Population Index | Global Warming Index | Nature Index | Research sites.
Terms | Glossary | Word webs | Basic vocabulary | Advanced Vocabulary | Antonyms | Synonyms
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| Tools of Toil: what to read. | ||
| Tools are historical building blocks of technology. | ||
Pursell | Pacey | Postman | Eberhart | Snow | Tenner | Pacey Meaning | Kranzberg | Kaku
