A note about who can take the course:  This PHIL graduate course can also be taken by Philosophy undergraduate students at their fourth academic year.  Futhermore, graduate students in departments other than Philosophy may be allowed to take the course.  If you are a fourth year Phil undergrad OR a grad in a non-Phil department, send me an e-mail explaining your background and stating your Cum. GPA so that I can consider your case and respond to you.

PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY I

The subject matter of this course will be philosophy and technology.  We will try to understand and evaluate certain philosophical accounts in order to answer questions like:  Does technology have a nature?  How can we define technology?  What are the ontological and epistemological issues surrounding technology?  How can we carry out a phenomenological inquiry (e.g., Martin Heidegger) into technology?  How can we portray the social-political dimension of modern technology?  Does technology come with some necessity in today’s world?  How is technology and aesthetics related to one another? 

Our main reading is a highly controversial book by Barry Allen, titled Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience which is concerned with the anthropological, ontological, epistemological, and aesthetic/artistic dimensions of technology.  By way of preparation to the discussion explained above, we will read some selected articles regarding introductory matters in philosophy of technology.

Reading material:  The reader contains selected articles/chapters from the following books:

Scharff, R. C. and Dusek, V. (eds) Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2003.

Allen, B. Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience. N.Y: Cornell Univ. Press, 2008.

(some extra material)

Grading:  You will write a single paper for this course, at least 4000 words or approximately 12 pages (65% grade value).  It will be submitted in the finals period.  You are required to produce a written progress report (10% grade value) several weeks before the submission of paper.  The remaining 25% will come from your presentations, attendance rate and participation in our class discussions

Note: Students are responsible for arranging a presentation time in consultation with me.  You are expected to determine your presentation topic/time in the first month of the term.

Plagiarism:  Students must familiarize themselves with the definition of plagiarism and the ways to avoid it.