Course details

History and Philosophy of Technology

FIT Acad. year 2019/2020 Summer semester 3 credits

Current academic year

Course is not open in this year

The course "History and Philosophy of Technology" represents an introduction into the particular stages of development of the technology with respect to the surrounding cultural climate and the philosophical streams on the background of which these particular chapters of the history take place. The course deals also with the risk factors the civilization brings about, and suggestions are given how to overcome them.

Guarantor

Klapetek Milan, ThMgr. (CVP-Sekce HV)

Course coordinator

Dytrych Jaroslav, Ing., Ph.D. (DCGM)

Language of instruction

Czech, English

Completion

Credit (written)

Time span

  • 26 hrs lectures

Department

Continuing Education and Counselling Centre (CVP)

Lecturer

Klapetek Milan, ThMgr. (CVP-Sekce HV)

Subject specific learning outcomes and competences

The information transferred should provide the students with the knowledge of the amazing drama hidden behind an apparently cold and non-personal phenomenon of technology. The purpose is to establish links to the specific engineering subjects and to other branches of the culture.

Learning objectives

The target of the course is to instigate in the listener the awareness of glorious and many thousand years long history of the technology, and to give him/her the knowledge of relationships with the entity of human culture and the resulting ethical responsibility of any individual to whom technology should become a vocation.

Why is the course taught

Man means to such human activity which knows the history. Knowledge of history and knowledge of the development of technology are becoming an important part of the technology qualification.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

No prerequisite knowledge is called for.

Study literature

  • Lilley: Stroje a lidé v dějinách. Praha, 1973 (in Czech)
  • Jílek: Zrození velkých vynálezů. Praha, 1988 (in Czech)
  • Marshall: Po stopách lidského pokroku. Praha, 1932 (in Czech)
  • Bernal: Věda v dějinách. Praha, 1960 (in Czech)
  • Numford: Technika a civilizace. Praha, 1947 (in Czech)
  • Nový: Dějiny techniky v Československu do 18. století. Praha, 1974 (in Czech)

Syllabus of lectures

  • Since the earliest industry to megalithic constructions.
  • The antiquity and the Hellenistic science and technology
  • Medieval age - technology in the shade of cathedrals
  • Renaissance engineers - new image of the world
  • Long way to the steam engine
  • The industrial revolution in England
  • The meeting point between science and technology
  • The combustion engine, turbine and new potentials
  • Electrical energy from Thalet to Coulomb
  • Galvani and the others
  • The electromotoric principle comes into the world
  • The history of data transmission until the spark telegraphy
  • Inventors activities and the related ethical issues of today

Progress assessment

Presence at the lectures with passing the test and furnishing a written work (approximately 2 pages of text, 500 - 1000 words).

Exam prerequisites

Presence at the lectures with passing the test and furnishing a written work (approximately 2 pages of text, 500 - 1000 words).

Course inclusion in study plans

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