Philosophy of Technology

Technology is all pervasive in our world today. There is hardly any action that does not involve the mediation of technology. This mediation involves many unquestioned assumptions about the nature of technology in shaping and realizing our ends. It is the task of philosophy of technology to bring these assumptions into relief and lay them bare to understand the phenomenon of technology in our contemporary lives. Philosophy of technology is an inevitably interdisciplinary field of study that strives on insights from diverse disciplines such as philosophy, history, sociology, science and technology studies, design and engineering etc. to raise and address questions of such nature as: how do we define ‘technology’? Are technologies mere means to ends or do they also shape the ends in acting as the means? Can technical artefacts be said to be ethical/unethical in themselves? Can technologies be said to be value-laden? How can we understand the relationship between science and technology?  In contemporary times, the question of fairness and bias has come to the forefront with respect to AI systems. This begs questions as to the ontological moral status of autonomous and artificially intelligent systems.

Faculty involved: Ashwin Jayanti, Saurabh Todariya