Carolyn Miller Posthumanism

In Carolyn Miller’s article, What’s Practical about Technical Writing, she portrays techne as scientific, describing it as a productive means of reasoning that focuses on the practical construction and application of texts. She states that it is “both applicable and conceptualized,” combining theory and application together (22). It provides a framework by setting expectations for a given product, but also dictates the actual portrayal of a product. She refers back to Aristotle’s use of the word, and states that his perspective of techne is categorized as productive knowledge, which is “concerned with [the] making” and construction of products (23). She utilizes the definition and concept of techne to explain how practical rhetoric and the …show more content…
By focusing on the idea that humans are complex creatures, he states that, “Technique consciously transferred through teaching cannot be simply applied to all occasions as an object controlled by a subject” (374), indicating that techne is not as scientific in nature as Miller describes it. Therefore, theory and application will not necessarily always be connected as Miller claims, because humans are not always in control of relevant contextual situations, which are “‘an ongoing process or movement’” (376). He states that “When human environments become so overwhelming and human interactions with it are so complex that ‘they are no longer subject to rational prediction and control,’ our conception of technology is forced to change its (subjective or objective) deterministic view” (377). In essence, according to Hawk, life is too unpredictable to always associate both theory and application together, because as a result of our complex human interactions, theory is no longer absolute. Hawk’s idea of techne seems visually aligned with a disorganized sense of direction, in which the correct path is constantly evolving as humans