3. The Institution of Technology

In the third chapter entitled “The Institution of Technology,” Darian Meacham explores if the concept of “institution” can help better articulating how phenomenology can contribute to the philosophy of technology. He analyses the development of this concept throughout Merleau-Ponty’s work and shows how it arose in response to Lukács criticism that phenomenology would be inapt to deal with political affairs and/or to articulate the totality that humans are immersed in. Roughly speaking, Meacham defines institutions as durable forms of common life, and he shows how focusing on institutions circumvents Lukács’ criticism because it account for the possibility of intersubjective relations that are shared over time as well as an account of social and technical objects that are formed and maintained in communicative and expressive actions. Meacham sketches the beginnings of a phenomenological method of studying technologies as institutions, which enables to articulate how they structure different domains of intersubjective life.