Body Feenberg on Modernity and Technology by Philip Brey Philosophy Dept., Universiteit Twente 1. Technology, Modernity, and Rationalization Technology is, according to Feenberg, the sum of rational means employed in a society. Technologies fall under a dominant standard of scientific-technical rationality .
Rationality implies the application of formal rules to some domain of experience.
Rationalization is the process of making some domain of experience conform to some standard of rationality. The design of technological means conforms to rationality in that it involves the employment of such rules, and the application of technological means or other forms of rationalization to different sectors of society is justified by the belief that rationalization applies to any social domain. Feenberg employs two definitions of modernity, a broad one and a narrow one. Modernity in a narrow sense is current modernity . According to Feenberg, however, modernity is not characterized by any of its current social institutions, nor by a particular conception of human nature.