This issue is dedicated to Hendrik van Riessen, whose work was foundational for the reformational philosophy of technology. To commemorate him, a series of (biennial) Van Riessen Memorial Lectures was initiated in 2006. Two lectures have been delivered so far. On 21 April 2006, philosopher of technology Carl Mitcham, well known author of the book ‘Thinking Through Technology’, opened the series. On 22 May 2008, the second Van Riessen Memorial Lecture was presented by Bronislav Szerszynski, a sociologist who has written extensively about the relation between religion and technology. Both lectures were presented at Delft University of Technology, the university where Van Riessen served as its first professor of reformational philosophy.
Soon after the second Memorial Lecture, the editors of Philosophia Reformata decided to publish a special issue, based on the Mitcham and Szerszynski lectures. Two colleagues in reformational philosophy, Sander Griffioen and Jan Hoogland, were invited to respond to the lectures, and both appeared willing to take up that challenge. The result is what the reader now finds here. Szerszynski’s 2008 lecture was preceded by a presentation of Van Riessen’s work in the philosophy of technology, and based on that presentation I wrote an introductory article for this issue, being third in line at the chair for reformational philosophy of technology at Delft University. Egbert Schuurman has served for many years as Van Riessen’s immediate successor. I see it as an honor that I, as Van Riessen’s spiritual ‘grandson’, had the opportunity of introducing his impressive work here. Szerszynski’s text in this special issue is an extended version of his original Van Riessen Memorial Lecture. Hoogland’s response is based on the original, shorter version.
The content of this issue makes clear that Van Riessen’s work is appreciated not only in reformational philosophy circles, but also by many philosophers outside this tradition. Van Riessen wrote his reflections on technology in a time when the philosophy of technology was still in its infancy. Although language barriers caused his work to be underappreciated for a long time, there is now a rediscovery of the importance of his work. It is the intention of the editors of Philosophia Reformata that this issue will contribute to that.
Paid download
Free download
Summary
Status
Summary
Auteur
Titel
Philosophia Reformata
When asked how he would characterize himself, Andree Troost said: “I am a philosopher of theology” (Geelhoed and De Boer 2002). Troost studied theology, but he read more philosophical than theological books. He learned from the reformational philosophy of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven how to be a critical theologian, and critical he was: in the many articles he wrote for Philosophia Reformata, Troost joined issue with theologians who do not realize that philosophy comes first, attempting to lay bare the presuppositions of theology. The same he did in the two books he published in 2004 and 2005. Troost stopped writing for Philosophia Reformata in 2001. He passed away on 18 March 2008.
Blokhuis, Peter
The Cape Horn of Christian ethics: in memory of Andree Troost (1916-2008)
75 (2010) I 75-81
Book Reviews
Jacob Klapwijk, Purpose in the living world? (R. Clouser)
Bradley Monton, Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (J. de Ridder)
Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley, Knowledge of God (J. de Ridder)
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (A. Soeteman)
Book reviews
75 (2010) I 82-93
Articles
Marc J. de Vries, Introducing van Riessen’s Work in the Philosophy of Technology
Carl Mitcham, Placing Technology in Religious-Philosophical Perspective: A Dialogue among Traditions
Sander Griffioen, Response to Carl Mitcham
Bronislaw Szerszynski, Technology and Monotheism: a Dialogue with Neo-Calvinist Philosophy
Jan Hoogland, The Secular as an Ordering of the Sacred
Peter Blokhuis, The Cape Horn of Christian Ethics: in Memory of Andree Troost (1916–2008)
PHILOSOPHIA REFORMATA volume 75 (2010), no. 1
75 (2010) I
In this issue that is dedicated to Hendrik van Riessen, it seems appropriate to start with an introduction to his work. I will show how he served as one of the first Dutch philosophers of technology and worked on themes that only much later would appear on the research agenda of the international philosophy of technology community. This gives him a rather unique position in the history of the philosophy of technology. I will start by showing how his background qualified Van Riessen to become one of the few philosophers of technology in his time who were able to analyze the nature of technology, based on an ‘insiders’ engineer’s perspective. Then I will discuss the main themes in his analytical philosophy of technology. Not only did he contribute to the analytical philosophy of technology, but also to the critique on the role of technology in culture and society. Finally, I will show how his work is relevant for contemporary research in the philosophy of technology, both for his successors in the reformational philosophy of technology and outside that philosophical stream.
Vries, Marc J. de
Introducing Van Riessen's work in the philosophy of technology
75 (2010) I 2-9
The following text has been expanded slightly from a lecture read at the Technological University Delft on 21 April 2006. As is often the case, there were certain difficulties with transforming a text composed for oral delivery to one written for publication. One can employ a more dramatic phrasing in person, with body language and personal interactions to qualify it, than it would be appropriate to use when the same text takes printed form. I have nevertheless left some of oral phrasing in tact, with an appeal to readers to give the text as a charitable an interpretation as they can. There are also always desires to make a printed text more complete than what might be necessary in an oral presentation. Although I have made some modest elaborations here and there and added notes, I have also resisted trying to go as far as I would like in this regard. The recurring “I” in the present version also bothers me to some extent, but to have become more scholarly would have imposed a kind of artifice if not a false image of detachment.
Mitcham, Carl
Placing technology in religious-philosophical perspective: a dialogue among traditions
75 (2010) I 10-35
On May 22th 2008 Bronislaw Szerszynski held his Van Riessen Memorial Lecture at the Delft University of Technology. In this lecture Szerszynski presented his own view on the relation between religion and the modern technological condition, which shows some striking parallels with the way in which Reformational Philosophy sees it. Szerszynski wanted to show that the sacred and the profane/secular are not just opposites excluding each other, but that the profane/secular itself must be understood in religious terms. In the first part of this article the background, presuppositions and trends of this debate will be sketched and in the second part the parallels and differences between Szerszynski and Reformational Philosophy will be delineated.
Hoogland, Jan
The secular as an ordering of the sacred?
75 (2010) I 60-74
In Nature, Technology and the Sacred (2005) I argued that the modern project of the technological mastery of nature remains profoundly shaped by its religious roots. In this paper I explore connections and tensions between this analysis and the neo-Calvinist critiques of modernity and modern technology advanced by Herman Dooyeweerd and Hendrik van Riessen. I explore the relationship between Dooyeweerd’s analysis of Western culture as a sequence of religious ‘ground motives’ and my own in terms of the series of ‘orderings of the sacred’ which together constitute the ‘long arc of monotheism’. I relate van Riessen’s analysis of the internal structure of technology to my argument that this structure has been shaped by transformations in the sacred since the Protestant reformation. I conclude with some observations, prompted by the divergences between the two accounts, concerning the relationship between technology, monotheism, history and politics.
Szerszynski, Bronislaw
Technology and monotheism: a dialogue with neo-calvinist philosophy
75 (2010) I 43-59
I feel honored to be asked to respond to the text of Carl Mitcham’s Van Riessen lecture. Although philosophy of technology is not my field, there is much to make this task attractive, as Hendrik Van Riessen’s personality and philosophy have been formative influences on my own development, and this Lecture contains so much that is stimulating (as well as debatable). The setting in which Mitcham situates Van Riessen’s contribution seems to be the right one. Van Riessen’s seriousness and analytic depth are praised. Mitcham is also very positive about his focus on the internal structure of technology (techniek),1 and is convinced of the fruitfulness of this approach. He not only holds that it deserves greater attention than it has received, but also that it is still relevant today, comparing favourably with the now prevalent ‘social constructionist reflection on science and technology’.
