Günter Ropohl

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Günter Ropohl (born June 14, 1939 in Cologne ; † January 28, 2017 ) was a German technology philosopher and engineer .

Life

Günter Ropohl completed a degree in mechanical engineering and philosophy in Stuttgart, where he was a student a. a. by Max Bense and Carl Martin Dolezalek . After graduating as Dr.-Ing. (1970) at the University of Stuttgart did his habilitation in philosophy and sociology in Karlsruhe in 1978 with a thesis on the systems theory of technology.

In 1979 Günter Ropohl became professor at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and head of the Studium Generale, which he had previously supervised as managing director. From 1981 to 2004 he was full professor (C4) for general technology and work theory at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. The associated institute, which he set up together with the economist Alfons Schmid and the sociologist Dietmar Kahsnitz , and which he chaired several times, was called the "Institute for Polytechnics / Industrial Engineering" for the longest time and was most recently integrated into the social sciences department. In 1997 the three professors published the manual on work theory as a result of this collaboration .

From 1983 to 1991 Ropohl was visiting professor and director of a spring course for technology and society at the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik (Croatia). In 1988 he was visiting professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester NY (USA). Since the beginning of the 1980s, he was in exchange with American technology philosophers, u. a. with Carl Mitcham . In 1998 he was visiting professor at the University of Stuttgart.

Christoph Hubig writes in his obituary for Günter Ropohl: “He made his program of technological enlightenment publicly effective on many forums, including a. in the course of the management of the ARD-Funkkolleg 'Technik'. Ropohl was closely associated with the VDI and worked there in the - legendary - 'Technology and Philosophy' committee established in 1961, as chairman of the 'Technology Assessment' committee (VDI 3780), as chairman of the 'People and Technology' division and as a thought leader within the Work on the 'Ethical Principles of the Engineering Profession'. His commitment was recognized with the VDI plaque of honor. ”Furthermore, Ropohl was a member of the German Society for Philosophy (DGPhil), at whose congresses he has lectured several times.

Ropohl died in January 2017, a few months after the death of his wife.

plant

Ropohl has published 15 monographs, more than 210 essays and is (co-) editor of 20 anthologies on the philosophy of technology, the term technology , system theory , cybernetics , technology assessment , technology didactics and work theory . At the center of his philosophical work is the term sociotechnical system , which has been continuously developed since his habilitation thesis was published in 1979 in view of the transformations in work and industrial production . He analyzes the interaction between man and machine against the background of systems theory , which is transferred to the concept of a “general technology”. At Ropohl, a socio-technical system is located on a philosophical meta-level of consideration and is designed as a system of action or work. It consists of the subsystems factual system and human system (including human thought and action potential).

In Ropohl's writings on technology ethics , he argues for a technological enlightenment that reflects on material culture and focuses on human freedom of action. In this way he devotes himself to a philosophical critique of technocracy .

Ropohl's definition of "technology" has become famous:

"Technology encompasses (a) the set of benefit-oriented, artificial, objective structures (artefacts or material systems), (b) the amount of human actions and facilities in which material systems arise and (c) the amount of human actions in which material systems are used. "

This definition has also been adopted in the VDI 3780 guideline (technology assessment) as well as in the Brockhaus Encyclopedia and in Meyer's Large Pocket Lexicon (several editions each).

Ropohl also advocates the clarification and differentiation of the terms technology and technology in his writings . In this context he also differentiates between engineering and technical sciences .

Monographs

  • Flexible manufacturing systems: for automating series production . Krausskopf, Mainz 1971 (= Production Technology Today , 1, ed. HJ Warnecke; Dissertation University of Stuttgart 1970)
  • A systems theory of technology: laying the foundations for general technology . Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1979 ( habilitation thesis Universität Karlsruhe 1978). 2nd ed. 1999, 3rd ed. Karlsruhe 2009.
  • The imperfect technology . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1985
  • Technological Enlightenment: Contributions to the philosophy of technology . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1991, 2nd ed. 1999
  • Ethics and Technology Assessment . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1996
  • How technology comes to its senses: Contributions to the paradigm shift in the engineering sciences . G + B faculties, Amsterdam 1998
  • On the value of technology . Kreuz Verlag, Stuttgart 2003
  • Building blocks of meaning: a secular catechism . Reclam, Leipzig 2003
  • Work and technology: Philosophical contributions to technological education . Edition Sigma, Berlin 2004
  • Small stuff: satires - limericks - aphorisms . LIT Verlag, Münster 2004
  • General Technology: A Systems Theory of Engineering . 3rd ed. Of the 1979 book. Universitätsverlag, Karlsruhe 2009, digbib.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de
  • Signatures of the technical world: New contributions to the philosophy of technology . LIT Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2009
  • General systems theory: introduction to transdisciplinary thinking . Edition Sigma, Berlin: 2012
  • Concern society . Parodos, Berlin 2014
  • The essence of the economy. And the mischief of economists . Nomos (edition sigma), Baden-Baden 2015

literature

  • Nicole C. Karafyllis / Tilmann Haar (Hrsg.): Technological philosophy on the move. Festschrift for Günter Ropohl. Edition Sigma, Berlin 2004 (contains a complete list of his publications up to 2004 in the appendix).
  • Nicole C. Karafyllis (Ed.): Leading Life? Lifestyle between technology philosophy and life philosophy. For Günter Ropohl on his 75th birthday . Edition Sigma, Berlin 2014 (continues the list of publications until the beginning of 2014).
  • Christoph Hubig , Alois Huning, Günter Ropohl (eds.): Thinking about technology. The classics of technology philosophy and newer developments. 3rd ext. Edition. Edition Sigma, Berlin 2013
  • Alexander Friedrich, Petra Gehring, Christoph Hubig, Andreas Kaminski, Alfred Nordmann: More than a technology philosopher - On the death of Günter Ropohl . In: dies .: (Ed.): Yearbook Technikphilosophie 2018: Technik und Spiel . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2018, pp. 15–16.
  • Nicole C. Karafyllis (Ed.): The impossible of technology as a higher level art of friendship. The "Ropohl-Hubig Controversy" . In: Philipp Richter et al. (Ed.): Opportunities for reflection . Festschrift for Christoph Hubig. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2018, pp. 171–202.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. published. 1979, 2nd edition under the title Allgemeine Technologie , 1999, 3rd edition 2009, freely accessible on the Internet: digbib.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de
  2. It was on the 4th floor of the FLAT building (research and teaching at the tower) in Robert-Mayer-Str. 1 and had its own library. At that institute, u. a. Richard Huisinga (later professor for vocational education at the University of Siegen) and Nicole C. Karafyllis (later professor for philosophy at the TU Braunschweig).
  3. Handbook for Labor Studies . Oldenbourg Verlag 1997
  4. Christoph Hubig: More than a technology philosopher - On the death of Günter Ropohl . In: VDI-Nachrichten , March 17, 2017.
  5. Günter Ropohl passed away . "Network smoking"
  6. A complete list of his works can be found in the two editions of Nicole C. Karafyllis . Festschriften for Günter Ropohl, published in Berlin: edition sigma, 2004 (for his 65th birthday) and 2014 (for his 75th birthday, updated list).
  7. Günter Ropohl: A system theory of technology . 1979. 3rd revised. Edition. 2009.
  8. ^ Günter Ropohl: General technology . 3. Edition. P. 140 ff.
  9. ^ Günter Ropohl: General technology . 3. Edition. 2009, p. 31.