The Machine Question's first chapter, titled Moral Agency, breaks down the history of said agency based on what is included and excluded in various parts of history; it also discusses the morality of humans toward objects and the theory of the philosophy of technology, a theory that was first used in the late 19th century by German-born philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp.
The first chapter, titled Moral Agency, breaks down the history of said agency based on what it included and excluded in various parts of history. Gunkel also raises the conflict between discussing the morality of humans toward objects and the theory of the philosophy of technology that "technology is merely a tool: a means to an end". The phrase "philosophy of technology" was first used in the late 19th century by German-born philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp, who published a book titled "Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik". 
