SPT2025

CALL FOR PAPERS for SPT2025, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS. JUNE 25-28, 2025.Conference website: https://spt2025.dryfta.com

Theme of the conference: The Intimate Technological Revolution

From June 25-28, 2025, the Philosophy and Ethics Group of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences of the Eindhoven University of Technology will host the 24th biennial international conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. The conference theme is “The Intimate Technological Revolution”.

Modern technology permeates every aspect of our lives: the technology nestles itself in us (for example through brain implants), between us (through social media like Facebook), knows more and more about us (via big data and techniques such as emotion recognition), and is continually learning to behave more like us (robots and software exhibit intelligent behaviour and can mimic emotions). We refer to this as the intimate technological revolution.

These intimate technologies offer numerous (potential) advantages, such as improving health, enhancing efficiency, increasing safety, and fostering human connection, but they may also entail undesirable developments. As it often affects people directly and personally, intimate technology sparks many social, ethical, and philosophical issues. The intimate character of these technologies introduces novel forms of vulnerabilities and risks, influencing our physical well-being, personal identity, social relationships, and broader societal structures. They also create new roles and tasks for engineers, policy makers and other societal stakeholders and raise new questions for philosophers of sciences and ethicists. The opportunities, vulnerabilities, and risks of technologies must be picked up to direct the intimate technological revolution in a responsible way. At this conference, we aim to reflect on the societal and ethical issues of these technologies, which requires us to rethink and reformulate ethical frameworks and social practices, and maybe even requiring novel methods, concepts and values.

The conference will start on Wednesday, June 25, and will end on Saturday, June 28. In principle, SPT2025 will be conducted in person. Online sessions (live-streamed) will be set up for the keynote presentations and some of the parallel paper sessions in the main conference room. Furthermore, we will make use of a virtual conference environment where in-person as well as online participants can interact with each other.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

•              Sabina Leonelli (Technical University of Munich)

•              Robert Rosenberger (SPT president, Georgia Institute of Technology)

•              Jens Schlieter (Bern University)

•              Shannon Vallor (The University of Edinburgh)

SUBMISSION

Submissions that engage in philosophical reflections on relevant aspects of technology are welcomed, including those from disciplines other than philosophy (e.g., STS, history, anthropology, and sociology). The Program Committee assumes, for example, the following themes for this conference including, but not limited to:

• Mental Health and Well-Being in the Digital Age
• Technology and Human Identity
• Regulation and Policy for Intimate Technologies
• Human Nature, Agency, and Autonomy
• Epistemology and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and Robots
• Technology, justice, and moral responsibility
• Environment, Sustainability, and Risks
• Democracy, Justice, and Solidarity
• The Role of Engineers and Designers in Shaping Intimate Technology
• Conceptual Disruption and Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies
• Personal Data: Ownership and Control
• Technological Citizenship
• Intercultural Philosophy
• Virtue Ethics
• Philosophy and Engineering Education

Submissions from practitioners, including entrepreneurs, engineers, and engineering faculty, are also encouraged. The Program Committee will strive for quality, variety, and diversity within the program. Please submit your abstract before January 15, 2025. All submissions should be in English. Since we would like to enable as many people as possible to present their work, no one will be permitted to present more than one contribution at the SPT2025 conference, but it is allowed to be involved in further contributions in another role (such as co-author or discussant).

•                     Proposals for posters: Next to classical keynotes, presentations in parallel sessions, and symposia, SPT2025 will organize dedicated and thematic poster sessions with expert panels. Whereas poster sessions are often seen as a negative or second-choice opportunity, this session type will use poster presentation as a strong method to increase interaction. Posters will be clustered around a particular topic. An expert panel will capture the debates and will further discuss the topic linking posters they considered thought-provoking. Poster proposals should have a 350-500 word abstract (excl. references), prepared for blind review. Aim to indicate the structure that will appear on your poster. Please indicate relevant topics and keywords in the Conftool submission form.

•                     Proposals for papers: Contributed papers will be allocated 25 minutes (including time for discussion). Contributed papers will be clustered into parallel sessions focusing on particular themes. Proposals for contributed papers should consist of a 350-500 word abstract (excl. references), prepared for blind review. Please indicate keywords in the Conftool submission form.

•                     Proposals for a full symposium: Symposia/panels will be allocated (at least) 90 minutes, including discussion. They can have any format. Symposium proposals can be submitted by the coordinating author, and should include the symposium title, a description of the symposium’s rationale (up to 500 words, excl. references), the title, and abstract (350-500 words, excl. references) of each of the individual presentations that will constitute the session, prepared for blind review. Please indicate keywords in the Conftool submission form.

•                     Proposals for Author-Meets-Critics sessions: We invite authors of (un) published articles to participate in the Authors-meet-Critics sessions. These sessions provide a platform for authors to receive feedback on their latest work by (a maximum of 6) discussants. The proposals should include the (draft of the) paper, and should be submitted by December 16, 2024. On the website, these sessions will be announced on December 18, 2024. People who would like to be discussants for a paper should register for the paper discussion of their choice before January 15, 2025, in the Conftool submission form.

Please submit your proposal through the conference website: https://spt2025.dryfta.com. If you have any trouble submitting through the form above, please direct your questions to [email protected].

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

• Abstract submission deadline (poster, paper, or symposium/panel): January 15, 2025
• Draft-paper deadline for Author-Meets-Critics session: December 16th 2024
• Paper submission for SPT Graduate Student Paper Awards: January 6th 2025
• Paper submission for SPT Early Career Award: April 1st 2025
• Expected notification of acceptance decision: February 15, 2025
• Registration opens: February 1, 2025
• Registration with early bird fee: February 1 - April 1, 2025
• Registration with standard fee: April 2 - June 18, 2025