SPT Newsletter

SPT Newsletter

Volume 29, Number 1 – Winter 2005

Contents

1. Letter from the President

2. SPT 2005 Conference

3. News from the APA Divisions

4. From the Executive Board

5. Job Openings

6. Calls for Papers

7. Conferences and Workshops

8. Membership and Dues

9. SPT Officers

Letter from the President

It has been a cold and snowy winter in East Lansing, my first full Michigan winter since joining the faculty at Michigan State University. I’m on Spring Break as I write this, enjoying warm weather and sunshine that I don’t expect to see at home for another six weeks. Thoughts are turning to summer in Delft, where the conference is shaping up to be one of SPT’s largest and most exciting. Many more papers were submitted than could possibly be accepted, and I am told that many interesting papers could simply not be accommodated on the program. I hope that those who submitted papers that could not be squeezed into the format designed by the program committee will be able to participate in the meeting as commentators, session chairs or participants.

The high level of interest in our European meetings, combined with fading attendance in the U.S. (see the article on the 2003 meeting elsewhere in the newsletter), raises a number of issues for the future of SPT. While interest in philosophical issues associated with technology is growing worldwide, so far SPT has not become a forum in which United States academics choose to circulate their work. Organizations such as the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), the Association fo Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) and the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT) have extensive programming on technological topics, and the American Philosophical Association (APA) held a successful special meeting on technology in November of 2004. SPT must either find a way to attract some of the scholars presenting at these meetings to the 2007 conference (wherever it is), or should shift its attention and devote its efforts to building membership from outside the United States.

Of course these are not mutually exclusive options. One possibility would for SPT to become more active in co-sponsoring sessions at these other venues. The International Society for Environmental sponsored a successful mini-conference following the APPE meeting in San Antonio, TX in February 2005. I would encourage members who participate in other organizations where SPT might co-sponsor a meeting or hold a special sessions to propose this to the board, and to take responsibility for organizing this kind of event as a way to broaden our visibility and help re-establish our identity in North America.

Meanwhile, let’s enjoy our popularity in Europe and continue to build our international membership. I will be turning the Presidency over to Peter Kroes in July, and Peter will be in an excellent position to do this. I hope to see everyone there.

Paul B. Thompson

SPT 2005 Conference

The 2005 SPT conference at Delft University of Technology

The process of organising the upcoming SPT conference at Delft has by now entered its next phase. We concluded the process of reviewing the submitted contributions, informed authors about the decisions of the programme committee, and can now start with composing the programme of the conference.

It can be confessed that the reviewing process was not a fully rewarding one. We received a number of abstracts that was substantial higher than what we were expecting on the basis of the last two SPT conferences. In itself this may be taken as a positive sign: our field is growing. But it also forced us to assess the contributions more critically. We did upscale the conference and dropped one plenary lecture to accommodate more contributed papers, but had in the end to reject half of the 200 submissions we received. I am well aware that this meant that abstracts have been rejected that otherwise would have been accepted.

As organisers we can now focus on registering all contributors and participants. Please note that accommodation in Delft is available but may become more difficult to find as the tourist season of summer comes closer. A skeleton programme of the conference will soon be available at www.sptdelft2005.tbm.tudelft.nl. We hope we can offer you an interesting philosophy and technology event.

Pieter Vermaas

News from the APA Divisions

SPT Sessions at the American Philosophical Association Central Division

SPT will sponsor two sessions at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division, April 28-30, 2005. The meeting will be held in Chicago at the Palmer House Hotel. Check the APA website at www.apa.org for further information on the meeting, including registration.

The first session will be a joint panel session on factory farms co-sponsored by the International Society for Environmental Ethics, GIII-7, Thursday, April 28, 7:30 PM-10:30 PM. Panel Discussion: Factory Farms. The panelists are:

Gary Comstock, North Carolina State University
Candice Croney, Oregon State University
Lyne Letourneau, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy (Quebec)
Erin McKenna, Pacific Lutheran University
Ben A. Minteer, Arizona State University
Peter Sandøe, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (Denmark)

Panelists will focus on the following questions:

What is “factory farming”? Is it best defined as a certain technological approach to livestock production, are social characteristics (such as the ownership structure or mentality of operators) more definitive, or should other dimensions or factors be stressed?

What is the ethical/political significance of factory farming as it relates to farm animals?

What is the ethical/political significance of factory farming as it relates to the environment?

What is the ethical/political significance of factory farming as a form of agriculture?

The second SPT session will be GIV-10 Friday, April 29, 7:00 PM-10:00 PM, and will include three papers with commentary.

1. Paper: “Robots, Possession and Anticipation,” Colin Schmidt, University of LeMans;
Commentary by D. Micah Hester, University of Arkansas Medical College

2. Paper: “Technology and Political Responsibility,” Stephen Esquith, Michigan State University; Commentary by Janet Woerner, Illinois Institute of Technology

3. Paper: “Power, Care, and the Meaning of the Modern World: Models of Technological

Consciousness From 'Ideology' to 'Ge-Stell' to 'The Panoptic'," Timothy Yetman, Purdue University; Commentary by Gary Aylesworth, Eastern Illinois University.

From the Executive Board

Executive Board Action on the 2003 Meeting in Park City, Utah

The SPT Board was unable to conduct its normal meeting at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Boston due to schedule conflicts and weather delays that prevented most members of the board from participating. Following an e-mail discussion, the board has authorized Treasurer Diane Michaelfelder to work with Utah State University to resolve the debt incurred with the 2003 meeting. SPT currently owes the conference services office at Utah State University a balance of $3380.15 for the 2003 meeting. The current SPT balance is $4,536.15 less an invoice from the Philosophy Documentation Service for $1,394.03, which is for billing and membership development services. The board has advised Diane to pay the PDS bill and apply the balance of approximately $3000 to the outstanding conference services bill, hopefully negotiating a forgiveness of the remaining balance from Utah State.

Why do we owe Utah State $3380.15? The 2003 meeting incurred significant losses due to much lower attendance than expected. While the 2001 meeting in Aberdeen had an attendance of over 200, the 2003 meeting had approximately 90 participants. What is more, approximately 20% of the attendees were from Utah or for other reasons did not occupy rooms in the hotel. We did not fill our room quota, resulting in significant charges for room and equipment rentals, etc. In addition, there was a contract with Utah State Conference Services which provided assistance in collecting registration fees, paying bills and assisting with local arrangements on a fee for service basis. The outstanding bill represents the amount owed after 100% of the funds collected for registration fees have been applied to hotel charges (including meals) and the conference services office fees for services rendered.

Why has it taken so long for all this to play out? The main issue has been that the original contract was between the philosophy department at Utah State and the conference services office. The contract was signed by our treasurer, who was also then head of the department at Utah State but has since left that position for a job at another university. There was apparently some confusion at USU as to who would be accountable for the balance. SPT President Paul Thompson received a letter in December, 2004 from Charlie Hunemann, current head of philosophy at Utah State requesting that we pay the balance on the bill. As noted above, the board has authorized Diane Michaelfelder to apply existing funds to the balance, but to negotiate a partial forgiveness of the debt on the ground that the high participation of Utah residents provides a rationale for Utah State to participate in the funding of the conference.

What are the lessons for the future? The experience suggests that SPT should not expect high attendance U.S. meetings, especially if they are not in urban centers that will attract a high European participation. Second, SPT should not enter contracts where local arrangements are being provided on a fee for service basis. Ideally, host institutions in the future will be able to offer financial support for meetings.

Job Openings

Full professorship in Ethics and Technology, in particular in ICT and the knowledge society

Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Section of Philosophy,

The Philosophy Section

The Philosophy section contributes to the professional and academic education of future engineers and conducts research into philosophical problems related to modern technology and its social implications. It provides service teaching on foundational and normative issues for all engineering programs at the Delft University of Technology (DUT). The main topics of these courses are ethics and engineering, philosophy of science and technology, and argumentation and critical thinking. The Philosophy section has specifically been entrusted the task of developing and introducing mandatory courses in ethics and engineering in all the university's engineering programs by the board of directors of the university. Through its research the Philosophy section aims to contribute to ongoing debates about the nature of modern technology and its role in society. Its research program focuses on foundational and methodological problems with respect to technology, e.g. the nature of technical artefacts and technological systems as socio-technical systems, and ethical problems in the design, development and implementation of technology, more specifically ethical problems related to technological risks. For more information about the section Philosophy, see www.fil.tbm.tudelft.nl. Given the increasing impact of modern ICT on society as a whole, and the emphasis of national and EU wide governmental programmes on creating a dynamic knowledge society, the section Philosophy wants to enforce its research and education programmes in ethics and ICT.

The vacant position
This full-professorship is to contribute to the consolidation, expansion and institutional entrenchment of ethics research and teaching in Delft. The title of the chair will be: Ethics and Technology, in particular ICT and the knowledge society. The person who holds this chair will have expertise in ethical problems about the design, development and implementation of new technologies, in particular technological innovations in ICT. Special attention will be given to the value sensitive design approach and to the development of methods for incorporating norms and values in designs. The chair holder will be responsible for all activities in engineering and ethics within the section of Philosophy. This includes a substantial number of mandatory courses in ethics for most of the engineering programs at the DUT. As regards research, the chair holder will be expected to set up research in the field of value sensitive design, in particular in the field of ICT (in close cooperation with the ICT section of TPM and with research groups at other engineering departments). This research will be part of the Reflection on Technology research programme, which is one of the five research programmes of the faculty of TPM (for more information about the faculty TPM, see www.tbm.tudelft.nl). Furthermore, the chair holder will be expected to play a prominent role in the Delft Platform for Ethics and Technology. For a more extensive description of the profile of the chair, see www.fil.tbm.tudelft.nl, under vacancies.

Tasks and responsibilities

Teaching:

§ Responsibility for the existing university wide service teaching in ethics and technology.

§ Introduction of mandatory courses in ethics and technology in engineering programmes at the DUT that still lack such a course.

§ Teaching of ethics and technology courses (particularly in the field of ICT)

§ Development and introduction of courses in value sensitive design

§ Responsibility for development of post-initial teaching in the field of ethics and technology.

Research:

§ To consolidate the existing research programme in Ethics and Technology and to expand it in the field of ethics and information technology.

§ To set up research projects in the field of value sensitive design as part of the TPM research programme Reflection on Technology

§ The formation of a Centre for Ethics and Technology (possibly in cooperation with the Philosophy department of Eindhoven University of Technology), which is to become a centre of excellence for research in this field.

§ To attract funding by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the EU KP programme and other third party funding for research in Ethics and Technology.

§ Support of the Platform for Ethics and Technology of Delft University of Technology.

Apart from these tasks and responsibilities in the fields of teaching and research, the chair holder is expected to fulfill standard administrative duties.

Selection Criteria

§ Candidates should meet the following criteria:

§ Expertise in Ethics, Applied Ethics and Ethics of Technology, more in particular in Ethics of Information and Communication Technology.

§ The ambition to expand ethics and technology research and teaching in areas that are designated as areas of priority at the DUT.

§ Excellent teaching skills

§ Outstanding research experience in relevant areas, apparent from PhD and other publications

§ The ability to build partnerships with other departments, faculties and other universities, and the ability to build partnerships between public and private sector organizations.

§ Commitment and capacity to establish strong networks in the government, public policy arena and (IT) industry in the Netherlands, the EU and beyond.

§ Strong networks in the international academic community, apparent from membership of relevant academic research networks, memberships of editorial boards, visiting fellowships etc.

§ Experience with attracting external funding for ethics research.

§ Experience in managing research/teaching groups and (international) research projects

§ Experience in teaching to target groups outside the academic world.

Salary

In accordance with the collective labour agreement (CAO) of the Association of Collaborating Dutch Universities (VSNU) the salary of this position is set in the scale of Professor A, with a maximum of € 6.592 gross a month, based on a fulltime contract and depending on your experience.

Applications

Please send your C.V. and your letter of application, with reference to number 05.004 to Peter Kuip, Head of the Personnel Department, Delft University of Technology, Faculty TPM; Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands. Applications should be sent in before March 17, 2005. The selection committee also welcomes suggestions of names of possible candidates (with full addresses, including e-mail addresses). For more information about this vacancy, please contact the chairman of the selection committee, Prof.dr.ir. Peter Kroes, e-mail: p.a.kroes@tbm.tudelft.nl.

Calls for Papers

TECHNISIERUNG/ÄSTHETISIERUNG –

TECHNOLOGICAL AND AESTHETIC (TRANS)FORMATIONS OF SOCIETY

Darmstadt Technical University, October 12 to 14, 2005

For the past nine years, the interdisciplinary graduate college “Technisierung und Gesellschaft” considered the technological (trans)formation of society. As the last cohort of doctoral students concludes its studies, the final conference widens the perspective and brings past researches to bear on the interplay of technological and aesthetic dimensions of formative processes in contemporary societies.

By foregrounding processes, the international conference goes beyond the iconic turn in science and technology studies. Rather than focus on images, it will explore the work that goes into producing self and society in the image of technology. This work involves constructions of time and space, it negotiates forces of globalization and localization, it construes self and nature as subject and object of technological shaping. This work also produces tensions between and among aesthetic and technological ideals.

There will be panels on:

· Aesthetic Anticipation

· Art, Technosciences, and Social Criticism

· Metaphors in Science and Technology

· The Aesthetic Dimensions of Warfare

· Urban Spaces and Private Quarters