Reflection on technology in social mythology of V.F. Odoevsky: the end of romantic mechanicism

The article is devoted to the origins of reflection on technology in Russian philosophy and literature from the 19th and 20th centuries. Our focus is on the technical developments and the phenomenon of technology as it appears in the works of the Russian philosopher Vladimir Odoevsky. The appeal to Odoevsky’s ideas is of particular relevance in today’s context of the formation of technological societies and perspectives. It is with the achievements of mechanics and technology that Odoevsky correlates his hopes for the good development of man and society, he connects the enlightenment and education of young people. At the same time, Odoevsky sees the danger lurking in mechanism and rational knowledge. This danger will be the loss of integrity, decay and devastation that will befall the world that has survived the crisis of culture. Turning to the work of the thinker, we trace the trends in reflection on technology from a philosophical position, as well as in unity with the poetic and musical. The theoretical basis of the study is the opposition of Odoevsky’s technical and poetic as vectors of social development. As a result of the analysis, the author of the article comes to an ambivalent assessment of the role of technology by Odoevsky, contrasting the romanticization of technology with the negative prospects of the “industrial”, “egoistic” century, which are further developed in the domestic and foreign philosophy of technology and anti-utopia of the 20th and 21th centuries. In his futuristic projects, Odoevsky discovers the potential of scientific foresight, embodied in the achievements of modern science and technology. The transition in the assessment of technology from idealism to scientific realism and positivism, reasoning of a social orientation (“Russian Nights”, 1844), the key opposition in Odoevsky’s concept of the romanticization of technology to the negative prospects of technical expansion is further developed in the domestic and foreign philosophy of technology of the 20th and 21th centuries. The modern appeal to reflection on technology in Russian philosophy and literature is due to the expansive introduction of technology into the life of society, the rejection of ethical neutrality and the trend towards autonomy, as well as the demand for the modern educational process, university training programs for both humanitarian and technical orientation.