• Overview
• Programme 2009-10
• Programme 2008-09

Overview

This is a regular reading group which looks at issues in the philosophy of technology. Any inquiries about this group should be directed to its organisor, Eric Kerr (E.T.Kerr@sms.ed.ac.uk).

Programme 2009-10

Autumn

• Thursday 12th November, 11:30-1pm, room TBC

   

  Reading (introduced by Will Newsome):

  Hutchins, E. (1995) 'How a cockpit remembers its speeds', Cognitive Science 19, 265-88 (pdf).

• Thursday 19th November, 11:30-1pm, room TBC

  Reading (introduced by Peter Cudmore):

Callon, M. (1986) 'Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brueic Bay', in Power, action and belief: a new sociology of knowledge?, (ed.) J. Law, London: Routledge, 196-223 (pdf).

• Monday 30th November, 11:30-1pm, room 4.01 DSB.

  Reading (introduced by Matteo Colombo):

  Hacking, I. (1995). 'The looping effects of human kinds', in Causal Cognition: A Multidisciplinary Debate, (eds.) D. Sperber, D. Premack & A. J. Premack, 351-83 (pdf).

   

Spring

• Thursday 11th February, 12-1.30pm, room 1.01 DSB

  Readings (introduced by Lena Wånggren):

  Rosalind Williams. "The Political and Feminist Dimensions of Technological Determinism." Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism. Ed. Merritt Roe Smith & Leo Marks. Cambridge, MA; London: The MIT Press, 1994. (pdf)

  Judy Wajcman. "Feminist theories of technology." Cambridge Journal of Economics 34.1 (2010): 143-152. (pdf).

• Thursday 25th February, 1-2.30pm, room 4.01 DSB

  Readings (introduced by Mark Hartswood)

  Simon Cooper. "Beyond enframing: Heidegger and the question concerning technology." Technoculture and critical theory: in the service of the machine. NY: Routledge, 2002 pp18-43. (pdf) [We recommend you also read chapter 1 to better understand the text (pdf)]

• Thursday 4th March, 2-3:30pm, room 4.01 DSB

  Reading (introduced by Matteo Colombo):

Andy Clark, 'Minds, Brains and Tools' (with a response by Daniel Dennett,) in Hugh Clapin (ed) Philosophy Of Mental Representation (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002) (available on author's webpage)

More meetings to be announced soon.

Programme 2008-09

• Wednesday 8th April, 1-2pm, room 1.01, Dugald Stewart Building

  Readings:

  (Primary) Barnes, B. 'The science-technology relationship: a model and a query,' Social Studies of Science, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb., 1982), pp. 166-172. (pdf)

  (Secondary) Layton, E. T. 'Technology as knowledge,' Technology & Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1, January 1974, pp. 31-41. (pdf)

• Friday 24th April, 1-2pm, room 1.01, Dugald Stewart Building

  Reading:

  Kroes P. & Meijers A. (2006) 'The dual nature of technical artefacts,' Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 37, 1-4. (pdf)

• Wednesday 6th May, 11:30-12:30 room 4.01, Dugald Stewart Building.

  Reading (introduced by Dr. Julian Kiverstein, Edinburgh):

  Heidegger, 'The Question Concerning Technology', available here and here.

• Wednesday 20th May, 11:30-12:30, room 1.01, Dugald Stewart Building

  Reading:

Beth Preston, 'Cognition and Tool Use' (pdf)

• Wednesday 3rd June, 11:30-1pm, room 1.01 Dugald Stewart Building

  Reading (introduced by Olle Blomberg, Edinburgh):

  Vaesen, Krist and van Amerongen, Melissa (2008) 'Optimality vs. Intent: Limitations of Dennett's Artifact Hermeneutics', Philosophical Psychology, 21:6, 779-797 (pdf). (Note that this paper is a response to Dennett, click here).

• Wednesday 17th June, 11:30-1pm, room 1.01 Dugald Stewart Building

  Reading (introduced by Matteo Colombo, Edinburgh):

  Tummolini, Luca and Castelfranchi, Cristiano (2006) 'The cognitive and behavioral mediation of institutions: Towards an account of institutional actions', Cognitive Systems Research (pdf).

 

Last updated: February 23rd 2010 by Duncan Pritchard.