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Call for Papers Theme: Multicultural Philosophies of Technology Type: Special Track of the 21st SPT Conference Institution: Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT) Texas A&M University Location: College Station, TX (USA) Date: 20.–22.5.2019 Deadline: 1.12.2018 __________________________________________________ In Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017), Bryan W. Van Norden argues that Philosophy, as an academic discipline, is in urgent need of diversification not least because we are living in an increasingly multicultural world, and also because the knowledge and ideas from non-Western philosophies may help to advance the discipline. Given the global nature of technology, Van Norden’s call for diversity in Philosophy (and, for philosophising) is even more pressing to Philosophy of Technology. Research and development of technology often involve multiple parties from different parts of the world, and technological products and devices are similarly bought and used by people from around the world. Multicultural understanding therefore is useful not only to facilitate research and development of technologies in multicultural contexts, but it is also essential for evaluating the social, ethical, and political impacts of technologies in those contexts. There are early and late attempts to demonstrate potential contributions of non-Western philosophies to the philosophical and ethical analysis of technology by comparing and contrasting Western and non-Western philosophies (see, e.g. important works by Charles Ess, Rafael Capurro), or to draw resources from non-Western philosophies in developing and defending specific approaches of analysis (see, e.g. Shannon Vallor’s Technology and the Virtues and Michel Puech’s Ethics of Ordinary Technology). There are, however, few attempts to offer a more critical reflection of non-Western philosophies’ significance in the philosophical and ethical analysis of technology, or to propose systematic frameworks for analysis based on non-Western philosophies. The Special Track: Multicultural Philosophies of Technology aims to expand Philosophy of Technology by inviting researchers to examine the relevance and importance of non-Western philosophies to the analysis of technology. We invite papers by authors working to - Introduce major concepts and/or the works of prominent thinkers in non-Western philosophies (e.g. Chinese philosophy, Japanese philosophy, African philosophy, Islamic philosophy, etc.), and investigate their imports to the analysis of technology; or, - Explore the conceptualisation(s) of ‘technology’ and related ideas in non-Western philosophies, and/or their understanding(s) of human-(nature-)technology relations; or, - Discuss more broadly the arguments for or against the project of Multicultural Philosophies of Technology and about the future of Multicultural Philosophies of Technology (e.g. the possibility of convergence of different philosophical traditions, etc.). For further information, please contact: w...@informatik.uni-hamburg.de 300-word abstracts for individual papers should be submitted by Dec 1 at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=spt2019 Please make sure to mention at the top of the page that the paper is for the special track “[Name of Track]”. Timeline: - December 1st 2018: Deadline for the submission of abstracts - February 1st, 2019: Expected notification of acceptance - May 20th-22th, 2019: Conference dates Track Chairs: Pak-Hang Wong, Tom Wang, Qin Zhu Conference website: https://www.spt2019.org __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
