CfP - Society for the Philosophy and Technology: The Grammar of Things
SPT 2017: The Grammar of Things
20th conference of the Society for Philosophy and
Technology
June 14-17, 2017 – Darmstadt, Germany
Due Date for Abstracts/Session Proposals: December 5, 2016 (see conference website for submission instructions). Notifications of acceptance expected by March 1, 2017.
When
we talk and think about technology, we are talking about ars and techne, artefacts
and socio-technical systems – and always about putting things together,
co-ordinating people and things. Seeking to understand, interpret, and
knowingly inhabit the human-built world, we explore what works together, how to
construct, engineer, compose, grow, plan, assemble, or design in appropriate,
fitting, sustainable, and sociable ways.
These are questions of grammar: How do things work together in the motor
of a car, in a public square, in a soap opera, in the painting of a historic
scene, in a deliberative process? What are the principles of composition in a
musical score or a computer program? How closely are things related in an
‘Internet of Things’? What sustains the operation of a concrete machine? Who
acts when a law is enforced, a plan realized, a code compiled, a script
executed? How do users become designers, how do scientists become engineers,
how do artefacts become moral agents?
Such examinations of the grammar of things implicate epistemology,
social imaginaries, and design ethics. They provoke analysis from the various
traditions in philosophy of technology and seek to draw on contributions from
history of technology, cultural studies, design theory, anthropology, art
history, cognitive psychology, computer science, engineering education, and
other fields.
Plenary
Speakers
- Pamela Andanda (Law, University of Witwatersrand)
- Christian Bök (Poet, Charles Darwin University)
- Sybille Krämer (Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin)
- Dagmar Schäfer (History of Science and China, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin)
- Astrid Schwarz (Philosophy, ETH Zurich)
- George Stiny (Design and Computation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Shannon Vallor (Philosophy, Santa Clara University)
In
order to apply for a Graduate Student Paper Award (includes travel stipend) or
the SPT Early Career Award (sponsored by Philosophy
and Technology), please consult the conference website:
www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.
Conference Organizers:
Sabine
Ammon ammon@tu-berlin.de
Alfred Nordmann
nordmann@phil.tu-darmstadt.de