Using Wittgenstein for Thinking About the Meaning of Technology

Wittgenstein is usually read as a philosopher of language, but does not figure in thinking about technology. In this talk I change this picture and show how what I take to be his use-oriented and holistic approach to language and meaning can also be employed for conceptualizing technology and its meaning as embedded in games and a form of life. Drawing on the Philosophical Investigations I will first sketch a working account of Wittgenstein’s view of language and meaning; in the second part of my talk I show how this approach can be used to shed light on the use of Technology in a social and cultural context, using the terms “games” and “form of life” as well as “grammar”. I argue that technology can be a game changer, but only to some extent; the “technology games” are already given before one starts a particular use of technology and have a transcendental function. I conclude that this interpretation of Wittgenstein is helpful to philosophers of technology, especially those interested in a broader and more social phenomenological analysis of technology as shaping and made possible by a form life.