6th International Colloquium on the Philosophy of Technology

Technology is one of the most complex and central actors in the contemporary world. Its analysis requires the collaborative effort of various areas of knowledge, in order to cover its many dimensions: political, cultural, philosophical, economic and social. This year the International Colloquium on the Philosophy of Technology aims to create a space for dialogue and exchange of ideas between the various disciplines concerned with unraveling the nature and effects of technology in its many dimensions and problems. We seek to position the philosophy of technology as a key discipline that can provide resources to think of technology in the human sciences, beginning with the role of technology in the very constitution of the human.

The International Colloquia on the Philosophy of Technology aim to contribute to the clarification of conceptual issues relating to technology, and establish itself as an area of contact between different approaches, traditions and disciplines. The Colloquium aims to bring together presentations analyzing key concepts within the contemporary debates around technology, opening up new avenues of inquiry, and strengthening the collaboration among researchers dedicated to analyzing this phenomenon.

We call for presentations with a duration of 30 minutes. Presentations on the following topics will be accepted, although we will consider any proposal within the philosophy of technology or surrounding fields:

• Social, political and cultural aspects of technology.
• Metaphysics of the artificial world and ontology of artifacts.
• The constitution of the “artificial” and “natural”: the ontology of “culture-society” vs. “nature”. Its role in shaping the human as subject and object of the human sciences.
• Phenomenological and epistemological aspects of interactions with technology. Materialist vs. intentionalist epistemologies.
• Regulations and ethics in technology. Can artifacts be moral agents? Autonomous systems and the problem of responsibility.
• Posthumanism. Technology and hominization. Challenges to anthropocentrism. The Anthropocene. The issue of the animal and technology.
• Ideologies of technology. Discourses about technology in today’s world: Transhumanism, determinism, optimism, substantivism, neoliberalism, hacker culture...
• Anthropology of material culture.
• Technology and the cognitive sciences: Extended minds, hybrid systems, distributed cognition, artificial intelligence.
• Technical agency: intentionality in action and mediation. Material agency and ecological theories of action.
• Transgenics, bioarfetacts, hybrids, cyborgs, supersoldiers. Digital objects, simulacra. The modification or reconfiguration of the human and the natural. New ontologies and epistemologies.
• Technology, art and media. The ontology of the image. The question of cinema. Technology, communication and sociality. Social and political aspects of new media and social technologies.
• The historical, philosophical and cultural roots of the modern concept of technology.