Tempi tecnici

Il problema del futuro tra dynamis e techne

Abstract

The essay offers an analysis of the relationship between technology and time, and it aims at showing that our individual and social experience of time is technologically shaped. The text features three sections. The first part highlights some fundamental aspects of the relationship between technology and time in Greek thought, in particular through a reading of Plato’s Protagoras. The analysis follows the development of the notion of techne in Greek philosophy, in particular through the relation with the notion of dynamis and the recognition of different levels of technicity. The second part of the essay focuses on some temporal aspects of Aristotle’s theory of techne, in particular on the relationship between techne and episteme and on the importance of the notion of telos. The third and final part highlights the historical character of the relationship between technics and time, and thus the historical nature of our experience of time. The recognition of this historicity is particularly important in order not to conflate different technological environments, as some scholars inadvertently do in their analyses of the history of ideas.