The ‘Empirical’ in the Empirical Turn: A Critical Analysis

Bosschaert, Mariska Thalitha; Blok, Vincent

doi:10.1007/s10699-022-09840-6

Table 1 Summary of the commonalities and differences between the understandings of empirical in the various branches of the empirical turn philosophy of technology

From: The ‘Empirical’ in the Empirical Turn: A Critical Analysis

	Postphenomenology	The critical theory of technology	The analytical philosophy of technology
What is empirical?	The movement from case to theory	The incorporation of science and technology studies approaches	- The engineering context - The movement from case to theory
Direction of analysis	From individual technology to a new theory	Back and forth between individual technology and a pre-existing theory	From individual technology to a new theory and back to practice in order to see whether it coheres with the resulting conceptual frameworks
What is qualified as case-study?	Undefined	Undefined	1. To help clarify concepts, methods, and practices instead of functioning as an illustration. 2. It must contain many relevant details. 3. It does not need to be representative but also not irrelevant
Who conducts a case-study?	- Philosophers (impressionistic cases) - Other scholars (methodological cases)	- Philosophers (impressionistic cases) - Other scholars (methodological cases)	- Philosophers (impressionistic cases) - Other scholars (methodological cases)
Methodology	- Observations by the philosopher - Social constructivism - Literature study about the technology (e.g., Verbeek, 2008) - Other methodologies when cases are conducted by other scholars	- Observations by the philosopher - Social constructivism - Literature studies to complement both contemporary and historical studies (e.g., Feenberg, 2010) - Other methodologies when cases are conducted by other scholars	- Observations by the philosopher - Studying engineering literature
Function of the empirical	- To understand the particularities of technologies in order to challenge theories and conceptions - To form a solid basis for an adequate understanding of technologies - To show possibilities for further development	- To disclose hegemonic values and believes of social groups in technologies - To generate new understandings - To make concrete proposals about how to make technologies more democratic	Derive new topics and concepts for philosophical study
Focus of inquiry	Human–technology relations	Social struggles, inequality between groups	Engineering practice
Philosophical movements as inspiration	- Postmodernism, - Phenomenology - Pragmatism - Social constructivism	- Modernism - Frankfurt School - Social constructivism	Analytical philosophy

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