SPT Newsletter
Volume 27,
Number 1 - Winter 2003
Contents
1.
SPT Announcements
2.
News
from the APA divisions
3.
Calls
for Papers
4.
Forthcoming
events
5.
Recent
publications of interest
6.
Philosophy
of Technology Around the World
7.
From
the Editor
8.
Membership
and Dues
9.
SPT
Officers
SPT
Announcements
SPT 2003 Conference on Technology and Global Society
July 7, 8 and 9, 2003 in
Registration
Form
Lodging
Reservation Form
Program
As previously announced, the 13th
meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Technology will be held July 7, 8 and
9, 2003 in
The program committee has
received about 50 abstracts from around the globe on a wide variety of topics,
and will be advising those who have submitted abstracts of their decision
shortly. Members of the society who
would still like to have abstracts considered should submit the immediately to
program chair Paul Thompson (pault@purdue.edu). In addition, we will be
adding a special session for poster presentations this year. Members and
students who have not submitted abstracts are especially encouraged to submit
poster proposals, which may be submitted up to
We would like to remind members
that final papers for the program should not be more that 12 pages,
double-spaced. Completed papers will be required by
SPT 2005 conference will be held in Delft, The
Netherlands
The 14th Biennial International
Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (2005) will be held at
Delft University of Technology, and will be organized by Peter Kroes and Pieter Vermaas,. Founded in 1862, Delft University
of Technology is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive technical
university in the
News
from the APA divisions
Pacific
Division
The SPT will hold a
session on Computers and the Mediation of Human Experience in conjunction with
the Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association,
·
Tom Powers (Senior
Research Associate, Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication,
·
David Kolb
(Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy,
·
Branden Fitelson (Assistant Professor,
Chair: Noam Cook,
Central
Division
The Society for Philosophy and
Technology will sponsor a special session at the American Philosophical
Association Central Division meeting on
Calls
for papers
Building Ethics
into Professionalism
Academic/industry partnered presentations encouraged on
these topics:
·
Discovering
Ethical Dilemmas and Communicating Ethical Resolutions
·
Ethics in
Competitive Bidding and Contracting
·
Shareholder
Ethics and Social Responsibility
·
Integrating
Ethics into the Classroom and Workplace
·
Establishing
an Ethical Organization
Abstract Deadline:
More information: http://www.gonzaga.edu/continuingeducation
Computing and Philosophy (CAP)
August 7, 8, 9, 2003,
The topics relevant to CAP are open-ended and we encourage
innovative proposals. Broadly, there are two areas of concern at CAP:
1.
Philosophical
critique of computing and information technology.
2.
Uses of
computing and information technology that are
philosophically significant.
CAP encourages dynamic, interactive presentation sessions as
opposed to simple paper readings. Completed proposal forms are due
Ethics Across the Curriculum
June 24 - July 1, 2003, Center
for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) at the Illinois Institute of
Technology (IIT) in
This summer (June 24-July 1, 2003), the
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) at the Illinois
Institute of Technology (IIT) in
Funding from the National Science
Foundation will pay for most reasonable expenses such as travel and living
expenses during the workshop, plus $500 in stipend, on condition that your
institution contributes another $1500. Attending the workshop commits the
participant to:
·
devoting
seven days (full-time) to the workshop (and related activities), with Sunday
off;
·
integrating
professional ethics into one of your technical courses in the fall by using
what you prepared in the summer workshop;
·
conducting a
course evaluation of the new material;
·
writing a report describing what you did and what happened.
Participants
will not have “graduated” from the workshop until they have completed these
components. Once all of this is completed, a participant should be able to help
faculty at the home institution to integrate professional ethics into their own
technical courses. To apply, you need only to send to the address below: a
short letter describing your reasons for wanting to take the workshop, your
background, and the courses you will be teaching next fall; a Curriculum Vitae;
and a letter of commitment from the appropriate administrator indicating that
your institution will pay its share of the stipend if you are accepted.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS
For
more information, please contact Michael Davis, Senior Fellow, Center for the
Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT, HUB Mezzanine, Room 204, 3241 S.
Federal Street, Chicago, IL 60616-3793; tel:
773.288.8348 / fax: 312.567.3016
email: davism@iit.edu;
CSEP
website: http://www.iit.edu/departments/csep;
EAC
website: http://www.iit.edu/departments/csep/eac/index.html
IR 4.0: Broadening the Band
International and Interdisciplinary Conference of
the Association of Internet Researchers,
Internet Research (IR) 4.0 will feature a variety
of perspectives on Internet, organized under the theme Broadening
the Band. As in previous conferences, the aim is to develop a coherent
theoretical and pragmatic understanding of the Internet and those that are
empowered and disenfranchised by it. IR 4.0 will bring together prominent
scholars, researchers, creators, and practitioners from many disciplines,
fields and countries for a program of presentations, panel discussions, and
informal exchanges. This year's theme, Broadening the Band, encourages wide participation from
diverse disciplines, communities, and points of view. Under the umbrella theme,
contributors are called to reflect upon, theorize and articulate what we know
from within the emerging interdisciplinary space known as Internet Research.
Deadline:
Conference Website:
http://www.aoir.org/2003;
http://www.ecommons.net/aoir
Forthcoming
Events
CEPE 2003 - The
Fifth International Conference of Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry will be held at Boston College (USA),
The Sixth Annual Ethics and Technology
Conference
will be held immediately following the CEPE at Boston College (USA),
The
Computing and Philosophy Conference 2003 (CAP’03), organized by The International Association for Computing
and Philosophy (IACAP) will be held at the University of Glasgow, Scotland,
March 27 – 29, 2003. The conference will deal with all aspects of the
"computational turn" that is occurring within the discipline of
Philosophy. Papers will be presented in the following areas:
·
Cognitive
Science, Epistemology and Metaphysics
·
Modularity
Issues and the Problem of Consciousness in Philosophy
·
Representation
in Computational Models of Cognition
·
New Models
of Logic Software
·
Computer-based
Learning and Teaching Strategies and Resources
·
Ethics
·
The Impact
of Distance Learning on the Teaching of Philosophy
More information: www.gla.ac.uk/departments/philosophy/ECAP.html
The
21st ANNUAL MEPHISTOS CONFERENCE - A Graduate Student Conference on the
History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science, Technology, and Medicine, will take place Thursday March 6th - Saturday
March 8th, 2003, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA. Mephistos is a graduate student conference on the history,
philosophy, and sociology of science, technology, and medicine that provides an
opportunity for graduate students to present papers, participate in
discussions, and meet other students in their field within a relaxed, informal
setting. Each year Mephistos is held at a different
institution and we are pleased to announce that the 2003 conference will be
held at the
http://philosophy.wisc.edu/mephistos2003/mephistos.htm
Recent
publications of interest
The
first FORESIGHT Working Paper of the Science and Technology Foresight unit of
the European Commission/DG Research
The first working paper
“The objective of
Sustainable Development: are we coming closer? - From the Pursuit of Happiness to the
Pursuit of Sustainability” by René Von Schomberg
is out. This paper makes the case for an
international "third" arena for long-term policy planning in order to
allow for regulatory mechanisms beyond national planning and global
market regulation. It proposes a research agenda to underpin the emergence of
such an arena. You can DOWNLOAD the paper on the Foresight Website at CORDIS at http://www.cordis.lu/rtd2002/foresight/working.htm
ICES: NEW JOURNAL LAUNCHED
The Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society (ICES) provides an interdisciplinary
perspective on the impacts of new media and information and communication
technologies on society, organizations, the environment and individuals. High
quality unpublished work from academics and practitioners is
welcomed for consideration. Work is subjected to rigorous blind refereeing.
Such work might be conceptual, visionary, empirical or policy focused, or any
combination of these. It might be written from a single disciplinary or
multidisciplinary perspective. Work can cover any sector such as agriculture,
commerce, education, finance, government, health, industry, leisure, media and
transport. All topics in the area of social and ethical issues are acceptable.
It is acceptable to consider all or any of the stakeholders such as clients,
communities, customers, developers, owners, policy makers, users and vendors.
Information about the journal can be
found on at www.troubador.co.uk/ices
including details of the papers in Volume One Issue One and Volume One
Supplement.
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Pragmatist Ethics for a Technological
Culture
Edited by Jozef Keulartz (Wageningen University,
The Netherlands), Michiel Korthals (Wageningen University, the Netherlands), Maartje Schermer (Dept. of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam
and Center for Ethics and Health of The Netherlands, Zoetermeer/The
Hague, The Netherlands), and Tsjalling Swierstra (Twente
University, Enschede, The Netherlands).
Our technological culture has an extremely dynamic
character: old ways of reproducing ourselves, managing nature and keeping
animals are continually replaced by new ones; norms and values with respect to
our bodies, food production, health care and environmental protection are
regularly being put up for discussion. This constantly confronts us with new
moral problems and dilemmas. In discussion with other approaches this book
argues that pragmatism, with its strong emphasis on the interaction between
technology and values, gives us both procedural help and stresses the
importance of living and cooperating together in tackling these problems and
dilemmas. The issues in this book include the interaction of technology and
ethics, the status of pragmatism, the concept of practice, and discourse ethics
and deliberative democracy. The book has an interactive design, with original
contributions alternating with critical comments. The book is of interest for
students, scholars and policymakers in the fields of bioethics, animal ethics,
environmental ethics, pragmatist philosophy and
science and technology studies.
Contributors. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part 1: Prologue. 1. Ethics in
a Technology Culture; J. Keulartz, et al. Part 2: Technology and Ethics. 2. Pragmatic Resources for
Biotechnology;
Book Series: THE
INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL, AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD ETHICS:
Volume 3
Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Hardbound, ISBN 1-4020-0987-9,December 2002 , 292 pp.
EUR 135.00 / USD 130.00 / GBP 86.00
Paperback, ISBN 1-4020-1115-6, Decem