Cucchiai, cacciaviti e cannocchiali. La questione della tecnologia in Umberto Eco

Is there an underlying philosophy of technology in the work of Umberto Eco? By organizing Eco’s textual corpus through the interpretive lens of literary genres, this paper analyzes the emergence of philosophical issues regarding technology in his narrative texts, theoretical essays, and cultural commentaries. The research questions investigate the corpus, asking whether Eco qualifies as a philosopher of technology or if his theory of semiotics can reveal an underlying philosophy of technology. Traditionally, Eco’s heritage has been analyzed through the lens of his contribution to Media Studies, often overlooking his philosophical speculation on technology. Here, it is argued that this inquiry can shed new light on a semiotics of media technologies. His narrative texts demonstrate the role of technology in scientific discovery and knowledge construction; his theoretical essays address the relationship between human values and technology, the indeterminacy of semiosis, the form-function dyad, the ways in which technology can become a sign within a cultural context, and how technology becomes pertinent in semiotic phenomena; lastly, his cultural commentaries analyze the role technology can assume in the social world. Therefore, the paper concludes that even if Eco cannot canonically be considered a philosopher of technology, his semiotic theory can help us understand how meaning emerges from our social and material relationship with artifacts. For Eco, the matter of the world is a potential repertoire of forms to be actualized through use: expressive potential and interpretive competence are always interconnected in an ever-open dynamic process. For these reasons, his theory can help address contemporary issues such as the development of generative AI technologies and the role of technophobia in scientific research.