Blog #4- Ihde Readings

I also had much difficulty understanding the Ihde reading, however I have tried to derives some useful meaning out of this passage. Ihde opens this chapter by saying that people must view the world as an imaginative one in order to understand how life would be without the presence of technology. Ever aspect of society has been so supersaturated with different technologies that it has become theoretically and virtually impossible for life to exist with out it. In this chapter three theories are presented to readers concerning the relationship between "tools" or technology and its specific environmental context. Heidegger claims that "tools" are completely dependent on their context or what they are being used for. Technology is separate form human beings, and it is up to the individual person to decide how to apply the specific "tool" with regards to the context. Heidegger describes the technology as the "means for the experience rather than the object." In contrast to Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, for Heidegger tools are independent rather than conjoined to people. Also Heidegger believes that people only notice the importance of technology when there is a "malfunction" or "breakdown." I definitely agree with this from personal experience. For example you never really realize how attached you are to your cellphone until your service is cut off and "all hell breaks loose." Husserl focuses on the difference between the prescientific and the postscientific world. Galileo, the genius behind the invention of physics and geometry, caused a revolution in which knowledge and logic become dominant. The sensory lifeworld in which humans are in direct contact to elements is the basic form of existence, which has been replaced by this more complex means relationship. However Husserl also believes that the value of simplicity is lost in this higher level of the postscientific world.
Lastly Merleau-Ponty presents a theory which is radically different than the previous ideas. Merleau-Ponty describes technologies as "extensions" of the human body, or the body and the "tool" in a dependent, inseparable relationship. A blind man's cane and the feather on the top of a woman's hat are two examples which this philosopher uses to prove that "artifacts" aid in the perception of the world. Also one last point Merleau-Ponty makes it that depending on your specific culture or body of knowledge instilled to you by your society, your perspective on the world and its interactions.