Technocracy vs TechneCracy

Discussion

Matthias Desmet:

"<We can thus interpret the idea of a knowledge-led society in two ways. A technocracy is a form of government based on technological control and technical-rational knowledge; a “technécracy” is a society based on techné – a kind of intuitive knowing to which rational-technical knowledge is only the prelude.>

"If not technocracy, what can be that guiding principle? Scientists have already started to answer that question. In the words of Renée Thom, mathematician and founder of systems theory: if you study an object rationally long enough, you develop the ability to ‘get into the skin of it’. You get a certain feel for it, in the same way as an art student suddenly gets a feel for his craft.

It is at this point that technical-rational knowledge takes a qualitative leap and becomes a form of truth that the ancient Greeks referred to as techné. Rational knowledge is always a form of external knowledge; techné, on the other hand, corresponds to a sense of the interior, and essence, of the object.

If the object to be known is another human being, or a society, or human existence itself, then this “interior” knowledge allows people to really connect with each other in an essential and meaningful way, allows a leader to get in touch with the people he leads, and allows man to discover the essence of his own existence. As such, this kind of knowing offers a solution to the greatest ailments of our time: the loneliness and fragmentation of society, the degeneration of leadership into bureaucratic tyranny, and a growing sense of life's meaninglessness."

(https://mattiasdesmet.substack.com/p/the-desire-for-technocracy-or-technecracy?)