Criticism And Reflection On Scientific And Technological Rationality In Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle

As the fourth novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Cat’s Cradle is a kind of apocalyptic novel that represents the postmodernist social conditions.By presenting the tragedy of the end of the world, it warns us that the rapid development of science and technology not only creates the material wealth and civilization, but also brings the huge disaster to human beings. Based on close reading, and by adopting the theory of scientific and technological rationality in philosophy, this thesis deeply analyzes Cat’s Cradle,to reveal the negative impact of development of science and technology towards human society. The purpose of the thesis is to provide a new perspective for the study of Vonnegut and his works.This thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction about Vonnegut and his novel Cat’s Cradle, and also about the research methods and objectives of the thesis. The second chapter mainly illustrates the theoretical basis of this thesis, the theory of rationality, value rationality and scientific and technological rationality. And it also touches on the critical reviews of Cat’s Cradle at home and abroad. The third chapter analyzes Vonnegut’s early family life, his war experience in Dresden during World War Two and his work experience in General Electricity.More emphasis will be put on the relationship between Vonnegut’s life experience and the big shift of his attitude to science and technology, from a loyal supporters shift into a scathing critic. The fourth chapter, based on close reading, analyzes and explains that the supremacy of the scientific and technological rationality has led to serious consequences for human beings and human society in Cat’s Cradle, criticizes people’s behavior of emphasis on science and technology rationality and ignoring the value rationality. The last chapter is about the reflection on the destruction of human society based on the harmony between value rationality and scientific and technological rationality.Through the above five aspects, this thesis reveals the criticism and reflection on the blind invention and abuse of science and technology which caused by supremacy of scientific and technological rationality in Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and reminds people not to believe and worship science blindly, but to make use of it reasonably,and achieve the harmony between value rationality and scientific and technological rationality in the development of science and technology.