Picture Source: *

CFP
WORKSHOP
“WITTGENSTEIN AND PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY”

DATE 13 March 2017
VENUE TBA, Vienna, Austria

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Langdon Winner
Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

Alfred Nordmann
Institute of Philosophy, TU Darmstadt, Germany

Call for Papers: Download

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME
Few philosophers of technology enlist Wittgenstein’s work when thinking about technology, and scholars of Wittgenstein pay scant attention to remarks about technology in his work. This double neglect of (aspects of) Wittgenstein’s work is symptomatic of a more general gap between philosophy of language and philosophy of technology. This workshop aims to close these gaps with presentations and discussions that use Wittgenstein to conceptually develop existing investigations in philosophy of technology and/or to better understand and evaluate technologies in the 21st century.

Questions to be discussed will include, but are in no way limited to, the following:

1) Is Ludwig Wittgenstein a “forgotten” classical author in the philosophy of technology? Can we read Wittgenstein’s works in a way that renders these works helpful to the philosophy of technology?
2) Conversely, could current positions and concepts in the philosophy of technology furnish a criticism of Wittgenstein’s thought, a criticism perhaps underdeveloped in or absent from the established reception (positive or critical) of Wittgenstein’s works?
3) Can Wittgenstein’s late reflections on use and forms of life add to, possibly even recitfy, current understandings of these notions in the philosophy of technology?
4) What light, if any, does Wittgenstein’s personal engagement with the engineering profession (from his studies in Manchester to his Vienna forays into building technology) shed on his subsequent engagements with philosophy?
5) What can we learn from Wittgenstein to better understand how we talk to machines and how machines talk to us (e.g. social robots)?
6) How can we use Wittgenstein to better understand the cultural, social, and political dimensions of contemporary technosciences such as synthetic biology (e.g. usage of the word “life”)?
7) Does Wittgenstein help us to understand connections between language and technology in the internet of things?
8) Can a Wittgensteinian approach contribute to addressing the problem of how to communicate specialized disciplinary terminology in transdisciplinary research?

CALL FOR PAPERS
A limited number of slots is available for non-invited papers.
Please send a 500 words abstract by 1 February 2017 to agnes.buchberger [at] univie.ac.at if you want to be considered for inclusion in the workshop.

REGISTRATION
Registration to attend is free but obligatory.
For registration and organizational issues contact Agnes Buchberger (agnes.buchberger [at] univie.ac.at)

ORGANISATION

• Philosophy of Media & Technology, University of Vienna, Austria
  philtech.univie.ac.at/

Prof. Mark Coeckelbergh
mark.coeckelbergh@univie.ac.at
http://www.coeckelbergh.wordpress.com/

Michael Funk
funkmichael@posteo.de
www.funkmichael.com

• University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA

Dr. Stefan Koller
skoller@uccs.edu

This workshop is funded by the Chair of Philosophy of Media and Technology (Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh), the Department of Philosophy, and the Faculty of Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna.

 

* Picture source: Christiaan Tonnis via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

 

 

 

 

Proud to be member of the Technical Expertise Committee at the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, along with Kevin Kelly and Charles Ess.

Workshop on November 11, 2016

Plants and Robots. New Directions in Relational Ethics

9-19h, HS 3D. NIG, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Ongoing developments in robotics and plant sciences put pressure on traditional dichotomies like biology/technology, natural/artificial, living/non-living, autonomic/automatic. The blurring of these categories generates new ontological and ethical questions.

Are plants and robots two categorically different phenomena? How are we to think of new possibilities like robotic ecosystems, robot plants, and the networking of non-human intelligences? And how are we to choose, act, and live virtuously when confronting such novelties?

In this workshop, we explore relational accounts as promising ways to cross established borders, re-elaborate distinctions and possibly build new philosophical bridges. We do so by discussing new ways of looking at, thinking about, and engaging and dealing with plants and robots from different perspectives in philosophy, robotics, and art.

Click here for the workshop poster.

On Oct. 11 the Austrian newspaper DerStandard published my article on our technological future. It can be accessed here. The follow-up article where I answer questions posed by readers is accessible here.

As machines take over more tasks previously done by humans, artistic creation is also considered as a candidate to be automated. But, can machines create art?

New Paper in Philosophy & Technology: Can Machines Create Art? To be accessed open access here.

Picture source: folding3hr4j by ellenm1 via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0).

David Gunkel and I had the chance to reply to Michal Piekarski’s response to our article “Facing Animals” published previously in the same journal. The paper is available open access here.

I am happy to announce being a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. It aims to promote thoughtful dialogue regarding the wider social and ethical issues related to the planning, development, implementation and use of new media and information and communication technologies (see link). Will keep you updated about Call for Papers.