A materialist conception of the lifeworld: Enzo Paci's social phenomenology of technology and the environment

Enzo Paci offers a critical phenomenology of the human-technology-environment interface. Revisiting Paci makes two contributions: (1) a critical social phenomenology of technology and (2) a conception of the lifeworld as environment-dependent. Birthed from a conversation between Husserl and Marx, his theory of the lifeworld as need and the satisfaction of need directs attention to humanity's necessary interaction with the environment as well as an understanding of techniques as means to satisfy needs in historically specific social contexts. “Technistic alienation” occurs when these techniques dominate their authors, from the atomic bomb to industrial labor, and their consciousness - for instance, when misplaced science is used to justify unjust social conditions. “Intentional technology” refers to the potential of “returning” technology to its authors to formulate a rational society.