Research programmes
1. Faculty of TPM - research programme‘Reflection on Technology’
The Philosophy section participates in the research programme Reflection on Technology of the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM). This programme differs in orientation from the other research programmes of TPM in that it is strongly reflective (and not so much instrumental) in nature. It does not aim at research results that directly contribute to the development and implementation of new technologies.
Instead, the mission of this programme is to contribute to a better understanding of modern technology, its social context and consequences and the possibilities and limitations of policy instruments for fostering and controlling technological change.
Given this aim, the programme contains fundamental as well as applied research and contains a strong multidisciplinary component. It brings together the TPM research efforts in the humanities and the social sciences (viz. philosophy, economy, history, law and technology assessment) with regard to the nature of technology and its role in modern society.
Although different in orientation, there are strong thematic connections with other TPM research programmes; examples of common research themes are decision theory with ‘Multi-Actor Systems’, safety with ‘Risk and Design’ and the design of socio-technical systems with ‘Infrastructures’.
2. Philosophy section - research programme ‘Philosophy of technical artefacts’
This research programme of the philosophy section is entitled Philosophy of technical artefacts. This research programme is executed in close cooperation with the philosophy section of Eindhoven University of Technology. Its general aim is to generate understanding of the nature of modern technology and its role in our society, in particular to contribute to potential solutions to the ever-more pressing issue of managing and controlling technology.
In contrast with the dominant tradition within the philosophy of technology (which focuses on the user phase of technical artefacts) this research programme studies the design and development phase of technical artefacts.
The underlying idea is that in order to understand the role of technology and of engineers in society, it is also necessary to understand the nature of technical artefacts (for instance, when compared to natural and social objects) and to understand the design and development practice of these artefacts. The programme is divided over two research fields:
This research field focuses on ethical issues in engineering practice and in the control of technology in our society, in particular on ethical issues related to technological risks and to responsibility.
This research field deals with issues relating to the nature of technical artefacts, of engineering design and of engineering knowledge. A central theme is a methodological and epistemological analysis of the causes of uncertainty and incompleteness.
A topic of common interest in these two subprogrammes is the various forms of uncertainty and risk inherent in technological action.
