Technoromanticism
Encyclopedia
Technoromanticism is a term used to indicate those aspects of contemporary culture that ascribe to advanced technologies the capacity to promote the power of the imagination, to restore the role of genius and to bring about a unity; in other words that revive and perpetuate the legacy of the eighteenth and nineteenth century artistic and philosophical movement known as Romanticism
, but by technological means. The term was used in 1999 in a book that bore the title Technoromanticism outlining evidence of romanticism in many commentaries on digital technology at the time.
As such, technoromanticism attributes to technology the capacity to redeem humankind from its problems and bring about techno-utopias. According to this thesis, technoromanticism is idealistic
, it also looks backwards, seeing in advanced technologies the opportunity to return to craft values, analogous to William Morris
’ romance with Medieval guilds. It appeals to narratives of wholeness, against rationalism
which is putatively reductive. Moves to invoke digital networks as a means of returning human society and the world to an organic whole could be regarded as technoromantic, as well as digital technology’s supposed religiously redemptive aspects.
such as Theodor W. Adorno
and Herbert Marcuse
. One motivation for describing certain aspects of digital culture as ‘’technoromantic’’ may be to signal that what many people claim about advanced networked computing is old fashioned and embedded in traditional ways of thinking, however innovative the technology. The term also buys into debates within the design methods
movement about Rationalism and Romanticism, or in philosophy between objectivism
and subjectivism
, particularly as articulated by the philosopher Richard J. Bernstein
. The term may also encourage critique of certain commentators who seem to claim they are adopting postmodern ways of thinking when in fact they may be referencing romanticism, or lapsing into what George Lakoff
and Mark Johnson
describe negatively as “armchair phenomenology.”
, and on whom many radical twentieth century thinkers have drawn, particularly Martin Heidegger
. There are those who deliberately label their activity as technoromantic, such as the artist Stéphan Barron, who has adopted the word in a positive way to categorise his art.
, Pragmatism
, Phenomenology, and the strategies of Deconstruction
as outlined in the context of digital computing by Winograd and Flores, Clark, Dreyfus and Coyne.
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, but by technological means. The term was used in 1999 in a book that bore the title Technoromanticism outlining evidence of romanticism in many commentaries on digital technology at the time.
As such, technoromanticism attributes to technology the capacity to redeem humankind from its problems and bring about techno-utopias. According to this thesis, technoromanticism is idealistic
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
, it also looks backwards, seeing in advanced technologies the opportunity to return to craft values, analogous to William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
’ romance with Medieval guilds. It appeals to narratives of wholeness, against rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
which is putatively reductive. Moves to invoke digital networks as a means of returning human society and the world to an organic whole could be regarded as technoromantic, as well as digital technology’s supposed religiously redemptive aspects.
Polemical character
The term “technoromanticism” seems to draw resonances from its opposition to the concept of technorationalism, targeted by critical theoristsCritical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
such as Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
and Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
. One motivation for describing certain aspects of digital culture as ‘’technoromantic’’ may be to signal that what many people claim about advanced networked computing is old fashioned and embedded in traditional ways of thinking, however innovative the technology. The term also buys into debates within the design methods
Design methods
Design Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
movement about Rationalism and Romanticism, or in philosophy between objectivism
Objectivism
Objectivism or Objectivist may refer to:* Any standpoint that stresses objectivity, including;* Philosophical objectivity, realism, the conviction that reality is mind-independent* Moral objectivism, the view that some ethics are absolute...
and subjectivism
Subjectivism
Subjectivism is a philosophical tenet that accords primacy to subjective experience as fundamental of all measure and law. In extreme forms like Solipsism, it may hold that the nature and existence of every object depends solely on someone's subjective awareness of it...
, particularly as articulated by the philosopher Richard J. Bernstein
Richard J. Bernstein
Richard J. Bernstein is an American philosopher, the Vera List Professor of Philosophy and former dean of the graduate faculty at The New School....
. The term may also encourage critique of certain commentators who seem to claim they are adopting postmodern ways of thinking when in fact they may be referencing romanticism, or lapsing into what George Lakoff
George Lakoff
George P. Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972...
and Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson (professor)
Mark L. Johnson is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. He is well-known for contributions to embodied philosophy, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics, some of which he has coauthored with George Lakoff such as...
describe negatively as “armchair phenomenology.”
Criticism of the term
Technoromanticism is therefore mainly a pejorative term for a naïve attitude to what digital technologies are and may accomplish. As such the label may misrepresent the profound aspects of the philosophical movement of Romanticism as advanced by Schlegel and SchellingFriedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Fichte, his mentor prior to 1800, and Hegel, his former university roommate and erstwhile friend...
, and on whom many radical twentieth century thinkers have drawn, particularly Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
. There are those who deliberately label their activity as technoromantic, such as the artist Stéphan Barron, who has adopted the word in a positive way to categorise his art.
Oppositions to technoromanticism
The most potent opposition to technoromanticism seems to come less from a return to rationalism than from arguments advanced from the positions of embodiment, situated cognitionSituated cognition
Situated cognition poses that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts....
, Pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
, Phenomenology, and the strategies of Deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
as outlined in the context of digital computing by Winograd and Flores, Clark, Dreyfus and Coyne.