Description: Interpreting Technology puts Ricoeur's work at the center of contemporary philosophical thinking concerning technology. It investigates his project of critical hermeneutics, the growing ethical and political impacts of technologies on the modern lifeworld, and ways of analyzin...
Brief description: Wessel Reijers is a postdoctoral Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. His research focuses on the philosophy and ethics of technology, notably on the development of a critical hermeneutical approach to technology and the investigation of the role of emerging technologies in the shaping of citizenship in the 21st century. He completed his PhD at the Dublin City University with a Dissertation entitled "Practising Narrative Virtue Ethics of Technology in Research and Innovation". He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Philosophy and Technology, Science and Engineering Ethics, and Organization on the topics of blockchain technology and social contract theory, an approach to technology based on Ricoeur's narrative theory, and a philosophical investigation of the digital commons. Furthermore, he has co-edited a special issue for the journal Philosophy and Technology on financial technologies.
Review Quotes: "This ambitious volume exploits Ricouer's hermeneutics to develop essential guidance to our interpreting multiple dimensions of our lives and concerns vis-à-vis technology broadly and specific technologies such as AI and social media. Going well beyond central schools in contemporary philosophy of technology, such as postphenomenology and the Frankfurt School, it thereby enables us to better respond to these concerns in more ethical and genuinely emancipatory directions. Individual chapters, encapsulated by the editors' overarching insights, offer a rich tapestry of critique, insight, and foundations for most promising new directions in philosophy of technology." --Charles M. Ess, professor emeritus, University of Oslo