Technocracy is an undeservedly condemned concept or worst of development scenarios?

The philosophy of technology places an increasing emphasis on the role of the technical intelligentsia in the model of today's world. In the middle of the last century, the concept of technocracy, which was the result of stunning progress in science, gained popularity among specialists.

Torstein Veblen and his works

What is technocracy? A brief definition of this concept, implying the power of engineers, appeared and developed in the works of Thorstein Veblen. To the greatest extent this concerns the social utopia of his authorship called "Engineers and the price system", published in 1921. In it experts in the field of technology and science are in the service of progress in industry and society, they are in power to replace financiers and higher circles of society for the common good. According to Veblen's ideas, in the twentieth century it was time to unite the technicians and become the main places in the rational control of society. At that time, it could be said that technocracy was a successful concept, and Veblen's speeches found a special response from Berl, Frisch and others.

The emergence of the movement of technocrats

In the third decade of the twentieth century in the States, when society was undergoing an economic crisis, a movement arose, such as technocracy. The definition of his program and principles was based on the idea of an ideal social mechanism, which fully corresponded to the ideas of Veblen. The adherents of the technocracy proclaimed the coming new time, a society in which all needs are met, a society in which engineers and technicians will take the leading positions. They also provided for the regulation of the economic sphere without crises, the correct allocation of resources and other issues.

Movement of technocrats gained momentum. More than three hundred organizations emerged who dreamed of an industrial coup and scientific planning applicable to the entire country.

Technocracy in the works of Bernheim and Galbraith

In 1941, James Bernheim, a sociologist from America, published the book The Revolution of Managers. In it, he argued that technocracy is a real political line in several countries. He noted that the technocratic revolution so influences society, that not socialism replaces capitalism, but "a society of managers." Control is related to property, in the absence of one there is no other. Ownership and control in the state and large corporations are divided. Bernheim believed that property should belong to supervisors, that is managers.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of technocracy was developed in the works of John Kenneth Galbraith "Economic Theories and Society Objectives" and "The New Industrial Society." At the heart of Galbraith's concept is the concept of "technostructure," it is the social hierarchy of specialists in the technical sphere, it is "the bearer of collective intelligence and decisions."

The more actively industrial society develops , the "technostructure" becomes more and more important not only in economic issues, but also in public administration. It is for this reason that political authority should be concentrated among technical specialists who apply knowledge and science for the management of society.

Technocracy is the basis of the theory of the "technotronic society" of Zbigniew Brzezinski and the "postindustrial society" of Daniel Bell.

Technocrat Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is a sociologist and professor at Harvard, representing a technocratic direction in philosophy. In the sixties he introduced the theory of the postindustrial society. In it, Bell outlined the vision of changes in capitalism as a result of the influence of progress in science and technology, its transformation into a new system that would differ from an industrial society and be freed from its paradoxes.

Criticism of Technocratic Principles

The reality of the technocrats' predictions for a long time did not cause doubts. In the second half of the twentieth century, it was time for amazing discoveries, increasing productivity and improving living standards in many countries. Simultaneously with positive processes, technological progress led to the intensification of many negative phenomena that put human existence at risk. Criticism of technocracy, idealized perspectives was expressed in a selection of works of art, which included anti-utopias: Karl Vonnegut's Utopia 14, Ray Bradbury's 451 degrees Fahrenheit, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 These works serve as a threat to mankind, condemnation of the totalitarian society of technocrats, in which the freedom and individuality of man are suppressed by extremely advanced science and technology.

An actual view of the technocracy

Today, philosophers view the problem of technocracy as one of the most urgent. Those who condemn the technocratic principles firmly believe that philosophy, armed with ethical, philosophical-legal, sociological and fundamental goals, could assure the society that technocracy is an unreasonable path of development.