oppo.digital

For engineers, particularly American engineers, ‘applied science’, along with its larger standing, might be claimed as their own autonomous physique of knowledge. For scientists, similar to John Tyndall and Henry Rowland, ‘applied science’ was the applying of pure science, a transfer that reserved the autonomy of their very own science whereas also claiming ‘credit for modern wonders of the commercial age’ (p. 64). As Schatzberg notes, after 1850 the frequency of use of the term ‘mechanical arts’ dropped as ‘applied science’ increased. Let us start with the instrumentalist approach that technologies are means to ends and see if it can be improved. Prayers, spoken language and swimming strokes are means to ends; two of them are methods and as such they share a household resemblance with applied sciences. But we will both reserve the helpful distinction of the time period ‘technique’ as well as sharpen the analytical definition of ‘technology’ if we agree to exclude practices that ca...