Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry is a 1984 book by Albert Borgmann (born 1937), an American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. Borgmann was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life contributed to the emerging philosophical discussions of issues surrounding modern technology. Following a Heideggerian viewpoint, Borgmann introduced the notion of the device paradigm to explain what constitutes technology's essence, loosely based on Heidegger's notion of Gestell (enframing).