This is a presentation about Philosophy in Technology. Philosophy in technology studies of salient philosophical dimensions, or underpinnings, of technology and demonstrating how philosophical insights may shed new light on what technology does or misses. The best technology is created when its philosophical foundations are (critically) realized and the best engineers are usually (knowingly or not) philosophers. The critical discussion on philosophical underpinnings of technology is necessary to rationally guide the development of technology and to realize the limitations, prospects, dangers and benefice of the technology on which we all depend. Some examples of PinT are: the concept of knowledge underpinning knowledge engineering, the nature of free will, personhood, and autonomy probed by the autonomous machines, the essence of ethics as interpreted in AI systems, abduction and induction and knowledge assumptions behind natural resources explorations, the nature of human mind underpinning AGI studies, the deep (natural) concept of computing underpinning Turing computing paradigm, philosophy of methodological aspects of technology- these just being few examples of potential topics to be explored by PinT. The presentation is an introduction to lectures on Philosophy in Technology offered in Spring Semester 2021 at Pontifical University of John Paul II, in Cracow, Poland.

1. What is Philosophy in
Technology and why do we
need it
Roman Krzanowski, Ph.D., D.Phil.
Essence of technology is not
technological
Summary Notes from Philosophy in Technology graduate course offered
The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, in Spring 2021
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roman-Krzanowski
ORCID iD 0000-0002-8753-0957

2.  In philosophy of technology there are three different foci
of attention, even though it is commonly accepted that
technology includes all of them.
 1) Technology as a kind of knowledge which combines scientific
knowledge –[know that]– and specific technological
knowledge –[know how]– and has a key role in design.
 2) Technology as a human activity which implements a
methodological process in order to transform the reality in a
creative way.
 3) Technology as a product or artifact of a human activity
which has a physical presence in the social world and possesses
a clear importance for macroeconomics and microeconomics.
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Philosophy of technology

3.  (1) philosophy of technology as the systematic
clarification of the nature of technology as an element
and product of human culture
 (2) philosophy of technology as the systematic
reflection on the consequences of technology for
human life
 (3) philosophy of technology as the systematic
investigation of the practices of engineering,
invention, designing and making of things.
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Philsophy of technology – Another
view

4.  Philosophy of technology is classified along with
philosophy of art, sciences, mathematics, history,
education, etc., as specialized philosophy.
 In this perspective philosophy of technology is discussed
from four general philosophical perspectives:
 Epistemology
 Axiology
 Metaphysics
 Methodology
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Philosophy of Technology- still
another view

5.  Technology involves the question of
knowledge. Exemplar question being asked
are:
 What is the relation of technology to science?
 What is the relation between the theoretical and practical
knowledge and how they relate to technology?
 Which kind of knowledge – practical or theoretical- is
primary?
 ……
Philosphy in Technology @Roman Krzanowski 5
Philosophy of Technology:
epistemology
https://online-
learning.harvard.edu/course/physics-i-lecture-
mechanics-elasticity-fluids-and-
diffusion?delta=0

6.  Some axiological considerations in philosophy of
technology involve
 The questions of values posed by technology to society
 What is worth doing, what is beneficial, what is harmful
 The questions of responsibilities towards other
members of society, towards environment
 What does constitute the misuse or abuse of technology
 …..
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Philosophy of Technology: axiology

7.  Some metaphysical considerations in philosophy of technology
involve
 The problem of reality that can manipulated / changed by
technology
 The problem of human ends and activities influenced by
technology
 The nature of human mind, individual, and person-hood
revealed by technology (AI)
 …..
Philosphy in Technology @Roman Krzanowski 7
Philosophy of Technology:
metaphysics

8.  Some methodological considerations and discusse
claims in philosophy of technology are:
 The concept of methodology as rational organization or
procedure
 There is not generally agreed to “procedure” how to do
technology.
 These terms are poorly defined and as such are subjects
of constant debates.
 ,,,,,,,
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Philosophy of Technology:
methodology

9.  Let us assume that for now we all some understand of these terms
 [Philosophy] - exploring fundamental assumptions – ontological, epistemic,
axiological
 [In]
 forming a part of something: (CED)
 used as a function word to indicate inclusion, location, or position within limits
(Merriam Webster)
 [Technology] –
 Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the
production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as
scientific investigation (wiki) common perspective
 the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in
industry. machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific
knowledge. the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied
sciences. (OED)
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[Philosophy] [in] [technology]

10.  Philosophy in technology (PhinT)- The
main claim:
 Technological activities have strong
philosophical underpinning most
often not recognized
 PhinT explores and explicates these
assumptions
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[Philosophy] [in] [technology]

11.  AI Models
 Our Human knowledge and coping skills “embody a whole
cultural interpretation of what it means to be human being, what
a material object is and what counts as real”.
 This background cannot be spelled out in a theory – i.e., cannot
be formalized (combinatorial explosion)
 This background can only be understood by living-in it
 This explains the failure of Cartesian/formalized
representative model of the world on which
traditional AI is based
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An example
Human knowledge and AI (Dreyfus)

12.  Dreyfus (1985): AI is conceptually mistaken about our
understanding of what is human intelligence and
what is our position towards and in nature
 the world cannot be understood /represented by
context-free rules, abstractions etc. (GOFAI)
Human understanding cannot be represented by
context-free elements in terms of abstract
principles /symbol manipulation
 To develop successful AI we need to change our
conception of ourselves and of our minds vs nature.
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An Example - Dreyfus and AGI

13. An Example:
Ethics in AI systems
Reducing Ethics to formal algorithms reduces ethics to formal
algorithm
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EthicsNA
•Virtue,
•Right and wrong
•Free will,
•The highest good
•Compassion
•Moral excellence
•Responsibility
•Justice
•Value
Not Algorithmic
EthicsA
•Virtue,
•Right and wrong?
•Free will,
•The highest good
•Compassion
•Moral excellence
•Responsibility
•Justice
Algorithmic
EthicsNA ≠ EthicsA
Algorithmic reduction
Is what is left Ethics?

14.  What Philosophy in technology is bringing in
new?
 It is not interested in any specific technical domain.
 It investigates how different technologies benefit from
purely philosophical concepts,
 … how these technological domains adapt traditional
philosophical concepts to their needs,
 … how philosophy in its abstract metaphysical,
ontological, or axiological perspective impact, shapes
and defines what technology does, how it develops and
how it evolves.
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What is PinT about?

15.  It is addressed
 to philosophers who sometimes think (or are told so) that their lot is to
waste time on useless discussions,
 to engineers and technologists in the general sense that think that what
they do has nothing to do with abstract esoteric philosophical thinking,
 and to anyone interested challenging the common or
received conceptions about philosophy and its practicality or lack of it.
 The claim here is that:
Philosophy matters a lot to technology and technological progress,
even if philosophers do not build bridges, buildings, computers, or
plough the earth;
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To whom PhinT is addressed?

16.  We look at philosophy from the perspective of technology
 Engineers are doing philosophy but do not know it
 Technological activities are also philosophical explorations
 Engineers are not aware that concepts they are working with
have deep philosophical dimensions and implications beyond
immediate artifacts they create
 Technological view of technology is flat, one-dimensional –
mechanistic (almost)
 Engineers see only technology – as an isolated object of thought
and activities (mostly because of the technological education)
 Philosophy in technology discloses the larger context in which
technology exists and functions
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Philosophy in technology

17.  Philosophers do not know technology and Engineers
do not know philosophy.
 Disconnect: engineers see philosophy as being of no
use or import to what they do and philosophers see
technology as unimaginative occupation not worth an
attention.
 The distrust and contempt (of sorts) to the “other” is
on both sides.
 While the truth is they all work on the same issues but
from different ends
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Disconnect

18.  Doing technological “stuff” - do we ask what else
did we miss?
 Almost nobody is asking these type of questions in
engineering departments?
Unfortunately?
 Engineers think they do technology stuff and they do not
anything else; they are not aware that they tread on
philosophical issues that bear heavily on the things they do.
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Philosophy in technology

19.  Engineers with philosophical insights into their work do
better than just technologists without any philosophical
perspective: engineers work from deep philosophical
assumptions but they rarely know it.
 Few exceptions are luminaries of engineering
 A. Turing – the concept of the mind
 K. Zuse - the concept of pancomputationalism
 E. Schrödinger – life as information processing
 B.C. Smith – AI 3rd wave
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Philosophy in technology

20.  Conceptual simplifications of fundamentally philosophical
concepts by engineers (meaning, value, ontology, ethics,
models, reduction, emergence, etc.) – results in limited
perspective on fundamental engineering problems
 With high impact of technology on human life it is of
utmost importance to close the gap between these two
perspectives – deep philosophical understanding of
foundational engineering concepts and their simplified
technological renditions
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Perspective

21.  With technology philosophy is always in the
background
 Technological problems, deep inside, are
philosophical questions
 Technological questions/ problems/ explorations
reveal philosophical questions in their practical
dimensions not in their theoretical realm
 In this way they demonstrate that philosophy to
technology matters
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Philosophy in technology

22.  Philosophy of technology is to understand technology.
 Philosophy in technology is to see technological problems
in philosophical perspective or as philosophical problems
translated into specific technological domain - applied
philosophy (e.g., computing in TM is information
processing, AI is a model of the rational thinking or the
mind – as some claim)
Philosphy in Technology @Roman Krzanowski 22
Few closing Thoughts

23. Knowledge
Engineering
What is knowledge and how do we “have” it”
AI and Autonomous
robots
What is person? What are human rights? What is free will? What is
thinking
Simulation and
modeling
What is reality and how do we know it and what do we know Is
reality mathematical?
Natural resources/
Mining Engineering
How do we know? What is justified belief
What is justification
AI Brain models and
WBE
What is mind ? what is consciousness? What is a thought and
thinking
Computing What is information and information processing? Are we computers
or information processing systems, what is information Does universe
compute ?
Autonomous Agents What is to be human? What is autonomy? What is to have agency
what is a person
Artifacts What is an artifact? Do we have liminal artifacts? What is software
what is computing, what is technology
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Technology explorations of
philosophical questions

24. The End
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