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Gregory H. Davis - 'The Role of Humanities in our Modern Technological Society' 22pp Paper presented at the Annual Meting of the Community Colleges Humanities Association

"This paper advocates that the humanities retain a place or have primary importance in the education system. It presents a history of philosophic and religious perspectives regarding science and technology, ranging from embracing technology to protecting it" (EH)

In the first pages of the paper, Davis presents a background of the emergence of technology beginning with the Greek myth of Zeus and Promethus. He then focuses on early Christian attitudes towards technology. He attributes much of the creation of modern technology to scientist Francis Bacon

"Francis Bacon called for a new science capable of application for the dominance of nature like his predecessors Roger Bacon and Hugh of Saint Victor, he associated his new science with human recovery from the Fall. His appeal for power over nature meant that henceforth, the laws of nature obtained from his new, experimental method in science. The modern interpenetration of science and technology had thus begun" (3-4)

Davis suggests that morality is "the culture of the humanities" (6)

Davis outlines a brief history of the progressive perspective and cites Karl Marx's beliefs regarding the relationship between the humanities and technology:

"At each developmental stage in history, Marx stated that human consciousness and intellectual culture depended on material forces. The humanities, therefore, were of secondary importance, and technology and economics were of primary importance." (11)

"According to Karl Marx, technological changes automatically bring social, cultural, and political changes. Langdon Winner, a contemporary American writer, has emphasized this broader impact of specific technological innovations by calling them "social forms." (16)

Davis concludes by suggesting that technology is attempting to destroy the humanities, and that scientists are "trained, rather than educated" which will lead to the end of the world.

"Modern science deals with the quantifiable and the repeatable, for the purpose of manipulation and control. The humanities deal with phenomena which are ambiguous, complex, and unique, escaping prediction and control. They deal with love, which science and technology have banished, in conformity with Bacon's requirement of objectivity and goal of domination. They are needed to counter-balance, question, and criticise technology, to preserve the idea of a richer existence". (21)