Cyborg intentionality

rethinking the phenomenology of human–technology relations

Peter-Paul Verbeek

pp. 387-395

in: Evan Selinger (ed), Affect, agency, intentionality, and responsibility, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 7 (3), 2008.

Abstract

This article investigates the types of intentionality involved in human–technology relations. It aims to augment Don Ihde's analysis of the relations between human beings and technological artifacts, by analyzing a number of concrete examples at the limits of Ihde's analysis. The article distinguishes and analyzes three types of "cyborg intentionality," which all involve specific blends of the human and the technological. Technologically mediated intentionality occurs when human intentionality takes place "through" technological artifacts; hybrid intentionality occurs when the technological actually merges with the human; and composite intentionality is the addition of human intentionality and the intentionality of technological artifacts.