Peter-Paul Verbeek
Peter-Paul Verbeek is professor of philosophy of technology at the University of Amsterdam and one of the most influential contemporary voices in post-phenomenological philosophy of technology. His critique of Borgmann — developed across multiple essays and the books What Things Do (2005) and Moralizing Technology (2011) — argues that the device/focal-thing distinction is too sharp, that some technologies can function as engaging devices demanding skill and attention even as they deliver convenience. His position has become the standard counter-position to which defenders of Borgmann's framework must respond.
In the AI Story
Verbeek's critique is philosophically serious and directly relevant to AI. His argument: a well-designed device need not eliminate engagement; it can relocate engagement, demand new forms of skill, and support rather than replace human agency. Climbing gear, musical recording software, and well-designed apps can all be more engaging than primitive alternatives. The sharp binary Borgmann draws — device over here, focal thing over there — ignores the spectrum in between.
Applied to AI, Verbeek's framework suggests that AI tools can be used engagingly — that critically evaluating AI output, formulating good prompts, and collaborating with models demands real cognitive engagement. This is a genuine insight, and the Borgmann simulation accepts it in part: focal collaboration as a prescribed practice depends on the possibility that AI can be engaged with rather than merely consumed from.
But the Borgmann framework maintains a crucial distinction Verbeek's critique underweights: engagement with a device's output is quality-control engagement; engagement with the material itself through one's own labor is generative engagement. Both are cognitively demanding. They produce different things. The evaluator develops evaluative skill. The generator develops generative skill. Exclusive reliance on engaging devices produces practitioners with excellent evaluative capacities and atrophied generative ones, because the generative practice has been eliminated even when the evaluative practice remains.
Verbeek's broader project — post-phenomenology, drawing on Don Ihde's earlier work — emphasizes the mediating role of technology in human-world relations. Technologies are not neutral tools but active participants that shape what we perceive and how we act. This framing is genuinely productive for AI ethics and design. Where Verbeek and Borgmann differ is on the question of whether mediation is compatible with focal engagement or structurally corrodes it.
Origin
Peter-Paul Verbeek was trained in philosophy at the University of Twente, where he began his career, before moving to the University of Amsterdam. He has served as president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology and holds a UNESCO chair on the ethics of AI.
His principal works on Borgmann include the essay "Devices of Engagement: On Borgmann's Philosophy of Information and Technology" (Techné, 2002) and the fuller treatment in What Things Do (Penn State University Press, 2005).
Key Ideas
Engaging devices. Some technologies demand real skill and attention even while delivering convenience; the sharp device/focal-thing binary misses these.
Post-phenomenology. Technologies actively mediate human-world relations; they are not neutral tools.
Mediation is compatible with agency. Verbeek rejects both technological determinism and the assumption that mediated action is diminished action.
Direct challenge to Borgmann. The critique has become the standard counter-position to device-paradigm analysis.
Applies to AI. AI tools can be used engagingly; the question is whether the engagement is generative or merely evaluative.
Appears in the Orange Pill Cycle
Further reading
- Peter-Paul Verbeek, What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design (Penn State Press, 2005).
- Peter-Paul Verbeek, Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
- Peter-Paul Verbeek, "Devices of Engagement: On Borgmann's Philosophy of Information and Technology," Techné 6, no. 1 (2002).