Historical Evolution of 'Technological Embodiment'

The theory of technological embodiment is the first contribution of philosophy to technology. In order to elucidate how the theory evolved historically, this paper first offers a theoretical framework with respect to the stages, approaches, and components of the theory. Next, different accounts of the theory are reconstructed according to the proposed theoretical framework. And finally, based on a comparative study of the accounts, the paper draws new conclusions concerning how the theory evolved historically, suggesting a divergence among contemporary accounts in terms of the (1) components, (2) direction, and (3) basis or cause of the human-artifact relation; this divergence seems to be the effect of a different interpretation on human, not on technology, offered by phenomenology when compared to that of the earlier philosophies.