Abstract

Recently, the distinction between nature and technology has been increasingly questioned. We are told that the changes to nature made possible by technology had reached such dimensions that it was no longer possible to clearly differentiate between nature and technology. Against the critical voices, I argue for the possibility and necessity of applying a version of the distinction that I call “classical”. I begin by examining selected historical origins of this distinction and thereby discussing some of its critics debated today – namely Hans Blumenberg, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway and Philippe Descola. In the next section, I introduce a concept of hybrid of nature and technology, which is suitable for delimiting and differentiating the scope of the classical distinction. I also need the concept of hybrid in order to assess the current tendencies in the development of the nature-technology relation, which are the subject of the last section. Against the background of these tendencies, I conclude by compiling some arguments in favour of maintaining the classical distinction between nature and technology.