Reflections on Technique Conceptions in Marx, Spengler, Mumford and Ellul

Due to the importance and consequent impacts that technology has been causing on society, studies in the History of Technology have been gaining increasing space in the academic environment. These studies have diverse objectives and aim to shed light on the multiple uses of technology. In labor relations, through remote work, in education systems, through distance learning, in economic production, aiming at increasingly automated systems, and cheaper products that are better adapted to consumer tastes. In the areas of health, with increasingly revolutionary applications, urban mobility, autonomous vehicles, and practically all sectors of social and political life, in view of this global panorama, the History of Science, Technology and Epistemology Program (HCTE) at UFRJ has been offering courses focused on a critique of technological development. This paper is an excerpt from a set of reflections on technology by three professors in the field.