Volume 28, Issue 2, 2011
Andrew Feenberg
Pages 16-35
The Mediation is the Message: Rationality and Agency in the Critical Theory of Technology
Critical theory of technology brings technology studies to bear on the social theory of rationality. This paper discusses this connection through a reconsideration of the
contribution of the Frankfurt School to our understanding of what I call the paradox of rationality, the fact that the promise of the Enlightenment has been disappointed as advances in scientific and technical knowledge have led to more and more catastrophic consequences. The challenge for critical theory is to understand this paradox without romantic and antimodern afterthoughts as a contribution to a progressive worldview.