Title: Beyond Right and Wrong - Designing for Well-being
Date: Thursday October 29th, 4pm
Speaker: Dr. Johnny Hartz Søraker, Department of Philosophy, University of Twente
Description: The pace of technological innovation and its prevalence in modern life leaves little reason to doubt that technology has had a profound impact on our well-being.
With both work and leisure activities being increasingly intertwined with (computer) technology, it seems more urgent to investigate how this affects our happiness rather than assessing whether there is any moral wrongdoing involved. In this talk, I will discuss how and when technology tends to improve or worsen our happiness and ground these considerations in both philosophy and empirical research - positive psychology in particular.
I will especially focus on the issue of how engineers can get a better understanding of how their design choices may affect the well-being of their users, as well as how a better understanding of human well-being can provide a source of innovation and creativity.
Dr. Johnny Hartz Søraker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente. He defended his PhD cum laude at the same department, dealing mainly with the epistemology, ontology and ethics of virtual worlds, with a particular focus on their potential impact on personal well-being.
Søraker's main research interests and publications lie in the intersections between Information Technology (esp. virtual worlds and games), on the one hand and both theoretical and practical philosophy, on the other. He often grounds his work in psychological research, especially work in the field of Positive Psychology and is developing this toward a comprehensive methodology entitled “Prudential-Empirical Ethics of Technology (PEET)”.
As a hobby project, he is also the host and producer of {SuchThatCast | Behind the philosophy}, which is a podcast consisting of informal conversations with inspiring philosophers.
8 ноя 2015
