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Social Science Cultural

The Will to Technology and the Culture of Nihilism

Heidegger, Marx, Nietzsche

by (author) Arthur Kroker

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2004
Category
Cultural, Criticism, Social Aspects
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802087867
    Publish Date
    Mar 2004
    List Price
    $74.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802085733
    Publish Date
    Mar 2004
    List Price
    $43.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442658660
    Publish Date
    Dec 2004
    List Price
    $37.95

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Description

In The Will to Technology and the Culture of Nihilism, Arthur Kroker explores the future of the 21st century in the language of technological destiny. Presenting Martin Heidegger, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche as prophets of technological nihilism, Kroker argues that every aspect of contemporary culture, society, and politics is coded by the dynamic unfolding of the 'will to technology.'

Moving between cultural history, our digital present, and the biotic future, Kroker theorizes on the relationship between human bodies and posthuman technology, and more specifically, wonders if the body of work offered by thinkers like Heidegger, Marx, and Nietzsche is a part of our past or a harbinger of our technological future. Heidegger, Marx, and Nietzsche intensify our understanding of the contemporary cultural climate. Heidegger's vision posits an increasingly technical society before which we have become 'objectless objects'– driftworks in a 'culture of boredom.' In Marx, the disciplining of capital itself by the will to technology is a code of globalization, first announced as streamed capitalism. Nietzsche mediates between them, envisioning in the gathering shadows of technological society the emergent signs of a culture of nihilism. Like Marx, he insists on thinking of the question of technology in terms of its material signs.

In The Will to Technology and the Culture of Nihilism, Kroker consistently enacts an invigorating and innovative vision, bringing together critical theory, art, and politics to reveal the philosophic apparatus of technoculture.

About the author

Arthur Kroker is an emeritus professor and adjunct professor of political science at the University of Victoria. He is the director of the Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture (PACTAC).

Arthur Kroker's profile page