Technology and the Future: A Philosophical Challenge

"Professor Schuurman is one of those rare individuals who are authentically equipped to address the issues of this study. In him the engineer and the philosopher meet. . . . From the outset he regards technology itself as being comprehensible only within the framework of the grand coherence of meaning that was laid down in this world of many-colored developmental potentia by the creator of heaven and earth. It is for this reason that he can boldly and openly assert that man is called to the task of technology. . . . I have no doubt that the commanding scientifi c study presented here will have an important impact on the English speaking world." From the Foreword, by BOB GOUDZWAARD EGBERT SCHUURMAN (born 1937) studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Delft and philosophy at the Free University in Amsterdam. He obtained his doctorate in 1972. In the same year he was appointed professor in Reformational Philosophy at the Technical University of Eindhoven. From 1983 to 1984, he was engaged in research and lecturing in the United States as part of an international research team on Responsible Technology. Since 1983, Dr. Schuurman has been a member of the Upper Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. In 1995, in Berkeley, California, he was granted a Templeton Award for his work as an educator in religion, science, and technology. Dr. Schuurman is the author of several books, including Perspectives on Technology and Culture, Technology in Christian Philosophical Perspective, Reflections on the technological Society, Faith and Hope in Technology, and Technological World Picture and an Ethics of Responsibility. Several of his books have been translated into Chinese, English, Korean, and Japanese.