Richard J. Aldrich, Bruce Anderson m.fl
Man and Technology: How Humanity Thrives in a Changing World
The word technology is often used to describe tools, but technology is present everywhere and in many different contexts. Technology can exist without material tools – for example, predators’ techniques to outwit their prey; the knowledge and application of statecraft and diplomacy; and military technology in the form of tactics, strategy and grand strategy.
The chapters in this volume deal with the significance of technology and technique for humans and as an aspect of civilisation. Like episteme, the term techne refers to knowledge, though of a different sort. We can find numerous uses of these terms from the ancient world, though of course techniques and the phenomena that can be termed technology have a past that stretches much further back, into the darkest reaches of prehistory.