I liked this chapter and Peter Perdue’s take on technological determinism. It was refreshing getting to a chapter I didn’t mind reading. This chapter talks about the aspect of determinism that most won’t acknowledge and that is technological determinism before the industrial revolution or the 20th century. Purdue wants us to go back centuries to see the kind of determinism they had. He starts off by claiming that limiting one self to solely determinism by technology negates human freedom and shouldn’t be brushed off quite so easily. He talks to us about the middle ages and their technology, the Chinese, the Russians as well as the single factor method. Both of these are far before our time and technological determinists pay them no mind, which is why I find his take so interesting. He doesn’t just talk about Europe or America as the sole technological manufacturers and I respect hat. This is definitely not like the chapter before it. Its surprisingly simple to read and something that most would agree with. I liked this one
Technological Determinism in Agrarian Societies
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