Philosophical Analysis of the Laws of Existence of Technology: Domestic Experience

The article attempts to consider the problem of understanding the laws according to which technology exists, which, along with science, is one of the foundations of the existence of human culture. The author carries out a brief philosophical analysis of the degree to which the laws of the technical phenomenon has been developed in the way it is presented in several most famous works in Russian ontology of different years and in philosophy of technology, in general. First of all, the emphasis is on a high degree of technical reality influence on a person and his future, and this influence tends to grow. At the same time, the author highlights the fact that technical reality is still an area of high uncertainty for human cognition, since for a long time it has not been in the focus of scientific and practical interests. Technology has indirectly interested a person since antiquity, but until relatively recent historical time it did not represent an independent specific problem that required considering urgently. The author notes that until now the problem of identifying technical laws has been, mainly, philosophical in nature. This, first of all, characterizes the complexity of the nature of the technical phenomenon. In this regard, the author is making an attempt to determine the level of understanding of the laws of the existing sphere of being of technology (technical reality), as it is presented in a number of well–known publications of modern domestic authors - scientists and philosophers. For this purpose, the presented work, first of all, makes a historical cross-section of the process of studying the necessary cause-and-effect relationships, as it developed in the past and exists today. It is noted that there is a relatively small number of articles and monographs devoted to the purposeful study of technology as a separate system and as a technical reality in general. The author assumes that only in the second half of the XIX century the first attempts were made to identify technical regularities (laws) within the framework of both philosophy itself and in the thoughts of engineers and technical scientists. Probably, the later study of the laws of technology predetermined high uncertainty of it as a phenomenon of nature and culture, which persists today. The above analysis enabled the author to make conclusion about the level of knowledge of the laws of technology that exists today in philosophy and technical science.