Ontology and Technology in the Everyday

Abstract

In this paper I try to discover a common thread which links issues discussed by various authors that may at first glance have little commerce with one another. The authors deal with different relations to reality that, I argue, inform our everydayness and technologies that permeat it. I consider the ontological issue of the real to be the unifying notion. Also, a tendency to disavow the human-centered stance on both theoretical and practical terms alongside abolishing the distance between man, or culture, and nature is apparent. The notion that technology does not have to be exploitative or destructive seems to also be an outcome of the mentioned shift in ontological terms. Our everyday dealings can be informed by notions that avoid dualisms such as different forms of anthropocentrism versus realism.