Postdoc researcher in philosophy of technology The department of philosophy of the University of Twente is looking for a Postdoctoral researcher (3 years) to do a philosophical analysis of socially disruptive technologies and their role in transforming society with special reference to transformations of fundamental concepts and values.
The ChallengeSocially disruptive technologies are technologies that change society in fundamental ways. They transform everyday life, social institutions, cultural practices, and the organisation of the economy, business, and work. They may even affect our fundamental beliefs and values. Current technologies with this promise include new digital technologies such artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, new bio- and brain technologies like gene editing and synthetic biology, and new environmental technologies like climate engineering and low-carbon technologies.
The aim of this postdoc project is to examine the nature and variety of these technologies and their disruptive and transformative effects, with special consideration of transformative effects on human thought, conceptualization, valuation and morality. The project will include, with accents to be provided by the postdoc, the following lines of investigation:
- A philosophical investigation, with a multidisciplinary orientation, of the notions of social disruption and social transformation, and classifications of technologies and (socio)technological products and systems as to their type and degree of disruption or transformation of various aspects of society.
- A philosophical-multidisciplinary investigation of types of (disruptive/transformative) impacts of technology on society, including impacts on social structures, institutions, cultural and epistemic practices, concepts, values and beliefs.
- A philosophical-multidisciplinary investigation and assessment of theories and approaches, in philosophy and social sciences, for identifying, assessing and measuring transformative and disruptive impacts of technology, and for studying interactions between technology and society generally.
- A philosophical-multidisciplinary investigation of the impact of technology on conceptualization and valuation (e.g., semantic changes in ontological and moral concepts).
The main output will consist of scientific publications (single- and multi-author; the latter with other researchers in the programme).
This PhD postdoc position is part of the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies programme, a new ten-year long international research programme of seven academic institutions in the Netherlands that has started in January 2020. This ten-year programme has a combined budget of € 27 million, and is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research in the Gravitation funding scheme for excellent research, and by matching funds from the participating institutions. It has the aim of achieving breakthrough research in at the intersection of ethics, philosophy, technology / engineering and social sciences, and to position its consortium at the top of its field internationally. A key objective is to investigate how new technologies challenge moral values and ontological concepts (like “nature”, “human being” and “community”), and how these challenges necessitate a revision of these concepts. This postdoc project will provide some of its conceptual and theoretical foundations. We also expect the postdoc to engage with other projects and research lines in the programme, and to organize workshops and meetings aimed at collaboration on the themes in the postdoc project.
The philosophy department (
https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/wijsb/) has around 40 members (faculty, postdocs, PhD candidates). It is a thoroughly international department, with English as the main language. It specializes in its research in the philosophical and ethical study of technology and its impact on people, society, and the environment.