Posts tagged "technique":

What is Technique?

In recent time I have noticed a considerable number of academic, policy, and popular works that have all covered parts of the concept of technique, without naming it as such. At the same time I have encountered numerous older writers and thinkers who were very much aware of the concept. I believe this is because of a lack of knowledge on the topic, and I have written this as a sort of “introduction” to thinking about problems of a technical sort.

Writing About Jacques Ellul

I am by no means an expert on Ellul, I have merely read three of his books (Presence in the Modern World, The Technological Society, and The Meaning of the City) But in trying to communicate his influence on my thinking, I have inadvertently written many times about him, albeit at an all too basic level. There are many theories claiming to explain all of human history, or at least the structure of our current society, but Ellul’s technique works because of its simplicity and deliberate vagueness. It is however this quality that makes explaining Ellul to others so challenging. Here is one example of an attempt made by me to quickly summarise the central ideas of Ellul’s technique.