IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020 - 73

perspective of art, philosophy, religion, ethics, and politics in order to study the position of technology and its
effect on the other aspects of human life [31, pp. 62-63].
Borgmann also expresses another duality before Mitcham named " Instrumentalism " and " Substantivism, "
which has differences and similarities with Mitcham's
classification [2, pp. 7-12]. Classical approaches in the
philosophy of technology form two different expressions
when they discuss the issue of transfer of technology.
The first expression considers technology neutral, by
which societies can achieve their goals as technological
philosophy of technology says. On the other hand, the
second expression suggests that technology has its own
culture and style, and if it transfers into a different culture, it is the culture of the target community, which
accepts new boundaries and limitations.
Classical views did not succeed in solving the problem
of the relationship between technology and society. The
turn in philosophy of technology in the recent period is
due to the shortcomings of the classical philosophy of
technology and particularly because they haven't had a
social and network-based understanding of technology
and its relations.6 New approaches to the philosophy
of technology generally have not accepted the two
approaches mentioned above, and they have tried to
reject them from their own point of view and replace
them with a new structure. The Pinch & Bijker approach
to Social Construction of Technology was the first of
these moves that, with numerous case studies, including
the design of bikes, showed that social structures play a
significant role in the formation and development of technologies [36]. Creating the concept of Momentum Technology, Thomas Hughes speaks about a model of
socialization of technology over time, in which society
and technology have a coherent and time-dependent
effect on one another [16]. Creating the words Sociogram
and Technogram, Latour presumes a mental distinction
between technical and social aspects of technology and
considers technology to be the end result of intertwining
these two concepts [26, pp. 138-140]. Influenced by
Latour and the philosophy of science, Feenberg attributes " underdetermination " to the technology that drives
technology away from mere substantivism or instrumentalism, and sees it as the end result of the interaction
between users and designers in relation to one another
[11, pp. 78-80]. Relying on phenomenology, Don Ihde
speaks of multi-stability and technology ambiguity and
rejects the duality of substantivism and instrumentalism,
which he describes as social determinism and technological determinism [17, pp. 5-7].

6
To learn more about classical philosophy of technology and its critiques,
see Philosophy of Technology after the Empirical Turn [4], and the introduction in [6] American Philosophy of Technology: The Empirical Turn.

DECEMBER 2020

∕

Next in this article, we return to our initial question of
the interaction of technology and culture in non-industrial
societies. We specifically seek a framework for describing
the state of technology and society in the transfer of technology from an industrialized country to non-industrialized countries with a deep-rooted culture and civilization.
New approaches to philosophy of technology can be
taken into account in our research, each of which somehow acknowledges the role of society in the development
of technology from their perspective. But since most of
these scholars have examined industrial societies, and
the West in particular, they have neglected the many differences that technological interaction creates in the context of the technological periphery. Therefore, we
examine the thoughts of Don Ihde in this respect as he
specifically addresses the issue of technology transfer
and the cultural contradictions that it creates. In this article, we first seek to define the thoughts of Ihde in the correlation between culture and society, then we move back
to our main question and examine Idhe's answers to it;
and finally, with a critical approach, we will evaluate his
thoughts in this area.

Don Ihde, in the Midst of the Spectrum
of Social and Technological Determinism
Ihde's attention to technology as a cultural instrument is
rooted in particular experiences in his personal life.
According to the introduction of his most famous book,
Technology and the Lifeworld, the idea of paying attention to the socio-cultural dimensions of technology first
came to his mind when he was on a trip to South America. During these trips, he encountered the realities of the
interaction of a non-industrial society with technology
that was widely different from his previous thoughts and
research. Further travels to other African and Asian countries provided him with other evidence that required the
formation of a theoretical framework for organizing
thoughts and theories of technology in the cultural and
social dimensions [17, p. xi]. As such, Ihde tries to create
a theoretical framework for analyzing the cultural
impacts of technology and society on one another.
As outlined in the introduction, for this purpose, Ihde
first explains the views of the two groups of technological
determinists and social determinists on the effects of
technology on different societies. The social determinists
consider technology to be a tool in the hands of society
that society can use for its own purposes. On the other
side of the spectrum, technological determinists believe
that society is influenced by the essence of technology
and that technologies transform a society's culture into
something new [17, pp. 4-5]. In order to move out of this
duality and create a theoretical basis for describing the
relation of culture and technology, Ihde uses two important philosophical traditions rooted in the 19th century,

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