Postfenomenología y experiencia material con objetos tecnológicos: Agencias y mediaciones desde el ‘volver a las cosas mismas’ en la era tecnológica

Abstract

This research explores postphenomenology as an innovative philosophical approach to understanding the complex, technologically mediated interactions between human beings and technologies in the contemporary era. Drawing on the Husserlian principle of “returning to the things themselves” as applied to technological experience, this study examines how technological objects mediate and transform human experience, reconfiguring both perception and the very structures of experience. Within the framework of postphenomenology, key concepts such as variational theory, technological multistability, and the notion of “mediation” are highlighted as foundational for rethinking the human–technology relationship, revealing how these interactions simultaneously amplify and condition human capabilities. This investigation integrates perspectives such as the empirical turn and Actor–Network Theory (ANT), tracing both the origins and the development of postphenomenological tenets, which respond to the challenge of examining concrete technologies through the phenomenological imperative of “returning to the things themselves.” This interdisciplinary foundation is further enriched by the incorporation of 4E Cognitive Science, which enables a nuanced analysis of the co-constitution between subjects and technologies, thereby redefining the boundaries between human and non-human agency. From this postphenomenological perspective, the relational approach conceives of technological artifacts as co-agents that actively participate in shaping the lifeworld and in the construction of human experience.