1 Philosophy and Technology 1 Danielle J. Williams and Gualtiero Piccinini To appear in Chan Sin-wai, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Technology and the Humanities, Routledge. Abstract: We review some core philosophical questions pertaining to technology. Technological artifacts are objects, external to organisms, made by organisms for purposes and such that, under appropriate conditions, they can be used to serve their purposes. Technological artifacts have functions, which can be understood in different ways. One relevant notion of function is that of a stable contribution to a goal, such as the goals technology is built and used for. This account can be used to evaluate borderline cases of technological artifacts such as paleolithic chopping cores, remnants from blade production that proved to be useful for other tasks. This account of artifacts and their function can cover artifacts made by both human and non-human animals, including insects. Technology can lead to scientific developments and vice versa. Technology gives rise to deep and timely ethical and public policy considerations, some of which we review. 0. Introduction Technology is ubiquitous and raises many philosophical questions. What makes something a technological product rather than a naturally occurring object? Can (nonhuman) animals produce technology? (Henceforth, “animal” will be used to denote nonhuman animals .) How should we understand the function(s) of technology? What are technology’s ethical and policy implications? There are different ways of answering these questions. Some views focus on agents’ intentions as necessary for creating technological objects; this ensures that naturally occurring objects are left out; it might also exclude objects produced by animals. On other views, technological products do not require agents’ intentions. This means that animals, including some insects, can produce artifacts analogous to human technology. In this essay we cover a wide-reaching landscape of topics regarding how to define technology, its role in science, and how it impacts communities. We hope to show that topics in philosophy and technology are far-reaching, touching on many important ontological, epistemological, ethical, and policy questions. 1 Thanks to Michelle Ciurria for helpful comments on this essay, particularly Sect. 7.