[hopos-g] CfA: History of the Philosophy of Technology Conference (Maastricht, 26-28 October 2026)

[Massimiliano Simons]

For those who want to cross over from HOPOS to HOPOT! For sure there is a lot of shared intellectual space to explore.

 

Massimiliano

Call for Abstracts

2nd International Conference

The History of the Philosophy of Technology

October 26-28, 2026

Maastricht University

 

Following the success of our first conference, the Society for the History of the Philosophy of Technology (HPT) invites abstracts for our second international conference. The theme of this year's conference will be National and Cultural Traditions in the Philosophy of Technology.

 

The philosophy of technology has long been shaped by distinctive national, regional, and linguistic traditions. These are not merely different translations of one correct, or rational, way to think about technology. Rather, these traditions point to the ways that technology, more broadly speaking, has been considered philosophically, emphasizing the pluralism and wide-ranging perspectives of the philosophy of technology across national and cultural traditions.

 

Yet the historical trajectories, intellectual genealogies, and institutional contexts that have shaped how different cultures have approached technology remain insufficiently mapped. What few existing histories there are tend towards straightforward summaries of Anglophone and Western European traditions while traditions from other countries, both in and outside of Europe, remain largely underexplored.

 

This conference focuses on the historically situated ways that philosophical reflection on technology has developed through different cultural and national traditions. We invite contributions that:

 

• Reconstruct national or regional traditions in the philosophy of technology.
• Map overlooked intellectual genealogies and thinkers whose work has not been centrally recognized within dominant narratives.
• Analyze sociotechnical, political, and cultural conditions that have shaped philosophical debates on technology in specific countries or regions.
• Examine cross-national exchanges, tensions, and translations that have influenced how the philosophy of technology has taken shape globally.
• Explore how historical narratives about technology and technological change differ across cultural and linguistic contexts.
• Investigate how concepts such as tool, craft, technology, nature, environment, labor, digitality, or automation acquire distinct meanings across national traditions.
• Identify methodological challenges in constructing comparative histories of the philosophy of technology.

 

We also welcome papers connecting national traditions to broader intellectual movements concerned with technology, including STS, history of technology, feminism, phenomenology, critical theory, pragmatism, environmental thought, design theory, media theory, and non-Western philosophical traditions.

 

Keynotes

 

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne)

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent is a philosopher and historian of science, emeritus professor at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a member of the French Académie des technologies. She has written on nanotechnology, the history and philosophy of chemistry, and she is one of the co-editors of French Philosophy of Technology: Classical Readings and Contemporary Approaches.

 

Adelheid Voskuhl (University of Pennsylvania)

Heidi Voskuhl's research field comprises the history of technology from the early modern to the modern period. Her broader interests include the philosophy of technology, the history of the Enlightenment, and modern European intellectual and cultural history. She has written extensively on the history of German philosophical thought on technology, including work on German idealism and engineering culture and Habermas’s thoughts on technology.

 

Roundtable on Italian Philosophy of Technology with Federica Buongiorno (University of Florence), Emanuele Clarizio (Catholic University of Lille), Agostino Cera, (University of Ferrara), Antonio Lucci (University of Turin), Paolo Vignola (University of Bergamo)

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Please submit abstracts of 250-300 words + a short biography by Monday 25 May, 2026 to histph...@gmail.com. We are also interested in panels of 3-5 papers. We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by late June/early July 2026. 

 

We do have limited funds available to waive the conference fees if needed and, in some instances, offset the costs of travel for scholars who lack institutional or other funding. If this applies to you, please make note of it with your abstract.

 

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