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- School of Science
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School of Engineering
- Undergraduate major in Mechanical Engineering
- Undergraduate major in Systems and Control Engineering
- Undergraduate major in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Undergraduate major in Information and Communications Engineering
- Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
- Common courses
- School of Materials and Chemical Technology
- School of Computing
- School of Life Science and Technology
- School of Environment and Society
- 工学院，物質理工学院，環境・社会理工学院共通科目
- Liberal arts and basic science courses
- First-Year Courses
- School of Science
- School of Engineering
- School of Materials and Chemical Technology
- School of Computing
- School of Life Science and Technology
-
School of Environment and Society
- Department of Architecture and Building Engineering
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
- Department of Social and Human Sciences
- Department of Innovation Science
- Graduate major in Technology and Innovation Management
- Common courses
- Liberal arts and basic science courses
- Academic unit or major
- Humanities and social science courses
- Instructor(s)
- Kawanishi Toma
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- Day/Period(Room No.)
- Mon5-6(W351) Thr5-6(W351)
- Group
- -
- Course number
- LAH.T303
- Credits
- 2
- Academic year
- 2022
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- 2022/4/20
- Lecture notes updated
- -
- Language used
- Japanese
- Access Index
-
Course description and aims
In this lecture, we will examine the concept of "technology" from a historical perspective. The history of a word reflects the culture and values of the society where it is used; the same is true of modern "technology" and the Japanese word "Kagaku Gijutsu" (science and technology). Today, the Japanese word "Gijutsu" usually translates into the English "technology." However, this word was rarely used in the English-speaking world until the 1930s. Until then, the venerable term "art" (with an appropriate modifier) was in use in the discourse of making and using artifacts. And the modern Japanese word "Gijutsu" has one of its origins in the translation of the word "mechanic[al] arts" in the early Meiji era. The "mechanical arts" also has a long history tracing back to ancient Rome as opposed to the "liberal arts," which loosely inherited the ancient Greek categories of techne (ars) and episteme (science). In this course, we will examine these ideas with the approach of conceptual history.
Student learning outcomes
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Understand the dependence of our cognition on historical time and place
2. Understand the historical conditions of the emergence of Western technology through the lens of conceptual history
Keywords
Science, Applied Science, Technology, Innovation, Art
Competencies that will be developed
| Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Class flow
The class will be given in a standard lecture style. Students will be required to submit comments or questions after the class. Each class starts with the lecturer's reviewing the comments.
Course schedule/Required learning
| Course schedule | Required learning | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Outline of the lecture: Introducing the framework (why conceptual history?) | No requirements. |
| Class 2 | Classification of knowledge in Ancient Greek and Roman | Reading course materials. |
| Class 3 | The hierarchical structure of knowledge in medieval Europe: scholars and artisans | Reading course materials. |
| Class 4 | The role of the ingeniator and the rise of the mechanical arts | Reading course materials. |
| Class 5 | The relationship between art and science in 18th century Britain and France: "useful arts" and "mixed mathematics;" art becoming "fine art." | Reading course materials. |
| Class 6 | Semantic void: the impoverishment of the concept of art; the Industrial Revolution, formation of the "pure/applied science," | Reading course materials. |
| Class 7 | The reflections on "machine": Andrew Ure, Charles Babbage, Karl Marx | Reading course materials. |
| Class 8 | Transformation of the concept of "innovation": from an epithet to a driving force behind progress | Reading course materials. |
| Class 9 | Making the Concept of "Technology": Thorstein Veblen and German Critique of Technik | Reading course materials. |
| Class 10 | The Precarious Science-Technology Relationship: the two World Wars and the technology as applied science | Reading course materials. |
| Class 11 | The increasing Skepticism about "Technology": Technology and Science as Ideology? | Reading course materials. |
| Class 12 | The Japanese Case (1) From "Geijutus" to "Kagaku Gijutsu" | Reading course materials. |
| Class 13 | The Japanese Case (2): Thinking about the "Technology Debate | Reading course materials. |
| Class 14 | Conflicting Images of Technology (Innovation, Science and Technology, Object-Rational Reason) | No requirements. |
Out-of-Class Study Time (Preparation and Review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Eric Schatzberg. Technology: Critical History of a Concept. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2018)
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Otto Mayr. The Science-Technology Relationship as a Historiographic Problem, Technology and Culture, 17.4 (1976): 663-673.
Donald MacKenzie. Marx and the Machine. Technology and Culture 25.3 (1984): 473-502.
Ronald Kline. Construing "Technology" as "Applied Science": Public Rhetoric of Scientists and Engineers in the United States, 1880-1945." Isis 86.2 (1995): 194-221.
Ruth Oldenziel. Making Technology Masculine: Men, Women and Modern Machines in America, 1870-1945. (Amsterdam University Press, 1999)
Pamela O. Long. Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance. (John Hopkins University Press 2001)
Eric Shiner. The Invention of Art: a Critical History (University of Chicago Press 2001)
Leo Marx. Technology: The emergence of a hazardous concept. Technology and Culture 51.3 (2010): 561-577.
Benoît Godin. Innovation contested: The Idea of Innovation over the Centuries. (Routledge, 2015.)
Kenishi Iida, Gijutsu. (Kodansha, 1995)
Tsutomu Kaneko. Nihon ni okeru "Kagaku Gijutsu" Gainen no Seiritsu, in Higashi Asia ni okeru Chiteki Koryu— Ki Konseputo no Saikento (Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyu Senta 2013): 287-301
Further reference will be given in the course of lecture. All materials used in class can be found on T2SCHOLA.
Assessment criteria and methods
Evaluation is based on mid-term and final reports (50% each).
Related courses
- LAH.T103 ： History of Technology A
- LAH.T203 ： History of Technology B
- LAH.S416 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences16:History of Technology
Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)
No prerequisites. Attendees should have an interest in philosophy, thought, and languages.
Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from "[at]" to "@"(half-width character).
toma.kawanishi[at]gmail.com
