The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
Critical theory of technology is a political theory of modernity with a normative dimension. It belongs to a tradition extending from Marx to Foucault and Habermas according to which advances in the formal claims of human rights take center stage while in the background centralization of ever more powerful public institutions and private organizations imposes an authoritarian social order.
Marx attributed this trajectory to the capitalist rationalization of production. Today it marks many institutions besides the factory and every modern political system, including so-called socialist systems. This trajectory arose from the problems of command over a disempowered and deskilled labor force; but everywhere [that] masses are organized – whether it be Foucault’s prisons or Habermas’s public sphere – the same pattern prevails. Technological design and development is shaped by this pattern as the material base of a distinctive social order. Marcuse would later point to a “project” as the basis of what he called rather confusingly “technological rationality.” Releasing technology from this project is a democratic political task.
In accordance with this general line of thought, critical theory of technology regards technologies as an environment rather than as a collection of tools. We live today with and even within technologies that determine our way of life. Along with the constant pressures to build centers of power, many other social values and meanings are inscribed in technological design. A hermeneutics of technology must make explicit the meanings implicit in the devices we use and the rituals they script. Social histories of technologies such as the bicycle, artificial lighting or firearms have made important contributions to this type of analysis. Critical theory of technology attempts to build a methodological approach on the lessons of these histories.
As an environment, technologies shape their inhabitants. In this respect, they are comparable to laws and customs. Each of these institutions can be said to represent those who live under their sway through privileging certain dimensions of their human nature. Laws of property represent the interest in ownership and control. Customs such as parental authority represent the interest of childhood in safety and growth. Similarly, the automobile represents its users in so far as they are interested in mobility. Interests such as these constitute the version of human nature sanctioned by society.
This notion of representation does not imply an eternal human nature. The concept of nature as non-identity in the Frankfurt School suggests an alternative. On these terms, nature is what lies at the limit of history, at the point at which society loses the capacity to imprint its meanings on things and control them effectively. The reference here is, of course, not to the nature of natural science, but to the lived nature in which we find ourselves and which we are. This nature reveals itself as that which cannot be totally encompassed by the machinery of society. For the Frankfurt School, human nature, in all its transcending force, emerges out of a historical context as that context is [depicted] in illicit joys, struggles and pathologies. We can perhaps admit a less romantic . . . conception in which those dimensions of human nature recognized by society are also granted theoretical legitimacy.
Technology, laws, and customs are not unlike each other if considered as institutions.
The fourth paragraph says that technologies, as an environment, shape their inhabitants and are “comparable to laws and customs”, since each represents people by privileging certain dimensions of human nature.
Its main argument, then, is that technology, laws and customs are not unlike each other when seen as institutions.
The automobile is just an example, the paragraph stresses similarity rather than difference, and it makes no claim about which institution privileges human nature more effectively.
Hence, Technology, laws, and customs are not unlike each other if considered as institutions.
technologies seek to privilege certain dimensions of human nature at a high cost to lived nature.
The passage says technologies privilege certain dimensions of human nature, as laws and customs do, but it never says they do so “at a high cost to lived nature”. That claim cannot be inferred.
The other claims follow: social histories of technologies help make their meanings explicit, the theory notes that formal rights advance while an authoritarian order grows in the background, and representation “does not imply an eternal human nature”.
Hence, technologies seek to privilege certain dimensions of human nature at a high cost to lived nature.
Technologies form the environmental context and shape the contours of human society.
The passage says critical theory of technology regards technologies “as an environment rather than as a collection of tools” and that “technologies shape their inhabitants”, determining our way of life.
So the statement that technologies form the environmental context and shape human society supports the argument.
The romantic conception is not the one said to need legitimacy, nature is not said to decide when society loses control, and laws and customs are said to represent human nature, not merely culture.
Hence, Technologies form the environmental context and shape the contours of human society.
Masses are organised in patterns set by Foucault’s prisons and Habermas’ public sphere.
The passage says that wherever masses are organised, “whether it be Foucault’s prisons or Habermas’s public sphere”, the same pattern prevails. The prisons and the public sphere are examples of places where the pattern appears.
Saying that masses are organised in patterns set by the prisons and the public sphere reverses this relation, so it contradicts the passage.
The other statements restate the passage: the pattern spreads wherever masses are organised, it marks so-called socialist systems too, and Marcuse’s “project” continues Marx’s line of thought.
Hence, Masses are organised in patterns set by Foucault’s prisons and Habermas’ public sphere.
Similar Questions
Zombie cells may contribute to age-related chronic inflammation: this finding could help scientists understand more about the aging process and why the immune system becomes less effective as we get older. Zombie or “senescent” cells are damaged cells that can no longer divide and grow like normal cells. Scientists think that these cells can contribute to chronic health problems when they accumulate in the body. In younger people, the immune system is more effective at clearing senescent cells from the body through a process called apoptosis, but as we age this process becomes less efficient. As a result, there is an accumulation of senescent cells in different organs in the body, either through increased production or reduced clearance by the immune system. The zombie cells continue to use energy though they do not divide, and often secrete chemicals that cause inflammation, which if persistent for longer periods of time can damage healthy cells leading to chronic diseases.
Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.
The last paragraph of the passage refers to “middle-class, white, professional men”. Which one of the following qualities best describes the connection among them?
Study the following sets of concepts and identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns and arguments of the passage.
According to the passage, who or what was an “alienist”?
“Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed.” Which one of the following best describes the use of the word “confession” in this sentence?
According to the incentive or moral hazard argument, which one of the designs below is most consistent with the claim that some inequality can raise growth?
Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
The primary function of the three-part case for a positive income inequality–economic growth link in the first half of the passage is to show that:
The passage refers to "democratization". Choose the one option below that comes closest to the opposite of this process.
Important Questions from Non Grammar
- In formulating Principle VI (a), the ILC clarified the term "waging of a war of aggression" because:
- The author attributes the growing public frustration with the UN primarily to which pair of continuous failures?
- A primary point of divergence between the US Conservative position and the Secretary-General's Conservative position on security matters, according to the summary is:
- According to the critique's conclusion, the immediate, insurmountable barrier preventing the implementation of any reform, major or minor, is:
- The Secretary-General's 'Agenda for Peace' proposed a specific military capability intended to address the gap between traditional peace-keeping and full military action. This proposed unit was explicitly characterized by the summary as being:
