Reading Jacques Ellul’s - The Technological Bluff in Context - Wha-Chul Son.pdf

BULLETIN OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY / December 2004 / THE TECHNOLOGICAL BLUFF
Reading Jacques Ellul’s
The Technological Bluff in Context
Wha-Chul Son
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
This article is a critical review of The Technologi- title The Technological Bluff”(Karim, 2001, p. 131,
cal Bluff, the last book on technology by Jacques Ellul. note 3). Ellul himself, however, claims the novelty of
Although this work has attracted little attention, the TB’s project. He says that “some think that this book
concept of techno-logical bluff1 provides a new per- of mine cannot hope to say anything new. Neverthe-
spective to understand contemporary technological less, I see some important things that have not yet been
society. After presenting Ellul’s exposition of the con- brought to light”(TB, p. xii).
cept of techno-logical bluff, its original contribution to The purpose of this article is to clarify the concept
technology studies is emphasized. It is also examined of the techno-logical bluff2 and to examine whether TB
how the analysis of techno-logical bluff is connected provides a new perspective to understand contempo-
with other major Ellulian notions such as autonomous rary technological society. Has Ellul said anything
technique and the efficiency principle. This is followed new by introducing the new concept, techno-logical
by a suggestion that the analysis of techno-logical bluff? What is its contribution to Ellul’s own idea and
bluff could function as a basis for a constructive dia- how does it differ from, for example, propaganda?
lectic relationship between classical and more recent How different is his view on the technological society
discourses on technology. The last section is devoted in the late 1980s from the one of the 1950s and how is it
to the Ellulian solution for the technological society incorporated in this work?
suggested in this work, namely, the paradox of Apart from Ellu