Andrew Feenberg

Andrew Feenberg
Feenberg in Vancouver, Canada, 2010
Born	1943 (age 73–74)
Occupation	Philosopher
Spouse(s)	Anne-Marie Feenberg

Andrew Feenberg (born 1943) holds the Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology, continental philosophy, critique of technology and science and technology studies.

Feenberg studied philosophy under Herbert Marcuse at the University of California San Diego and was awarded his PhD in 1972. During this time Feenberg was active in the New Left, founding a journal entitled Alternatives and participating in the May ’68 events in Paris.

Feenberg’s primary contribution to the philosophy of technology is his argument for the democratic transformation of technology. From his book Transforming Technology,

Feenberg provides the theoretical foundation for this idea through the Critical Theory of Technology which he develops over three books: The Critical Theory of Technology (1991) (re-published as Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited [2002]), Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory (1995), and Questioning Technology (1999). The basis of Feenberg’s critical theory of technology is a concept of dialectical technological rationality he terms instrumentalization theory. Instrumentalization theory combines the social critique of technology familiar from the philosophy of technology (Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Ellul) with insights taken from the empirical case studies of science and technology studies. Applications of his theory include studies of online education, the Minitel, the Internet, and digital games.