D.E. Wittkower
D.E. Wittkower is a Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University, where he teaches on philosophy of technology, cybersecurity, and information ethics. In addition to being Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sociotechnical Critique, he is editor or author of six books on philosophy for a general audience, and author or coauthor of forty-seven book chapters and journal articles. He has also written for Slate, Speakeasy, and Passcode, and has recorded a dozen audiobooks that, combined, have been accessed over a million times.
His research focuses on and branches out from the intersection of phenomenology of technology and feminist ethics of care. He has published work on topics including self and self-performance on Facebook, friendship online, the function and value of boredom on SNS, the role of the cute in digital culture, the phenomenology of audiobooks, the Occupy movement, ethics of care and employee loyalty, disempowerment and exploitation in crowdfunding, the crisis in copyright, technological influences in the construction of white male normativity, Philip K. Dick, and the iPod. His current work concerns disability, trust, privacy, and the Internet of Things.
He received a Ph.D in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006, where his training concentrated on German philosophy and the history of value theory (ethics, aesthetics, social/political philosophy), but also included training in Pragmatist and Analytic philosophical traditions. He is Phi Beta Kappa (1997), and was given the 2011 Award for Distinguished Teaching by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (Coastal Carolina University).
His research focuses on and branches out from the intersection of phenomenology of technology and feminist ethics of care. He has published work on topics including self and self-performance on Facebook, friendship online, the function and value of boredom on SNS, the role of the cute in digital culture, the phenomenology of audiobooks, the Occupy movement, ethics of care and employee loyalty, disempowerment and exploitation in crowdfunding, the crisis in copyright, technological influences in the construction of white male normativity, Philip K. Dick, and the iPod. His current work concerns disability, trust, privacy, and the Internet of Things.
He received a Ph.D in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006, where his training concentrated on German philosophy and the history of value theory (ethics, aesthetics, social/political philosophy), but also included training in Pragmatist and Analytic philosophical traditions. He is Phi Beta Kappa (1997), and was given the 2011 Award for Distinguished Teaching by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (Coastal Carolina University).
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Videos by D.E. Wittkower
Please note that where there are embedded videos in the Powerpoint the recording here plays out the entire video even when, in the presentation, I played only a few seconds of the embedded video. So, you will need to skip ahead sometimes.
Books by D.E. Wittkower
P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century and Children at War, Director of the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence.
“Ender’s Game and Philosophy” brilliantly captures the philosophical richness and contemporary relevance of this science-fiction classic, exploring its provocative implications for everything from modern drone warfare and just war theory to the nature of other minds, the limits of moral responsibility and the ethics of the ‘noble lie.’ Yet perhaps its most original contributions explore a subject too often passed over by philosophers – our special duties to children, and the dangers that contemporary political, educational and parenting techniques may pose for their moral development. A must-read for fans of the novel, and for anyone seeking to understand its enduring hold on the philosophical imagination.”
Shannon Vallor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University and author of 21st Century Virtue.
“For those interested in taking up Orson Scott Card’s challenge to decode “the layers of meaning” in his books, this is a stimulating addition to the Ender series. The essays here range from the ethics of war and cheating in sports to the extended mind, queer theory, empathy, and Hinduism. In each case the authors thoughtfully engage with the Ender books to draw out philosophical challenges and insights that will surprise and illuminate. A thoughtful companion to the Ender series and an invigorating introduction to philosophy for fans.”
Kevin Macnish, Teaching Fellow in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds and consultant on automated surveillance
—Charles Ess, author of Digital Media Ethics, and co-editor of Trust and Virtual Worlds and Information Technology Ethics
“The works of Philip K. Dick have long proved to be fertile ground for the cinematic imagination and now, as demonstrated by Philip K. Dick and Philosophy, they prove to be equally fertile ground for the philosophical imagination. As these contributors show, some of the deepest questions that we confront – questions about identity, free will, and our place in the universe – are perfectly illustrated by the memorable characters populating Dick’s fictional worlds, from the Nexus-6 androids, to the Precogs, to the customers of Rekal, Inc. For anyone who’s ever wondered if they might be a replicant, this book should be required reading.”
—Amy Kind, contributor to Star Trek and Philosophy and Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy.
“Wittkower has assembled an impressive collection of original and thought-provoking essays exploring a vast range of philosophical topics and displaying the breadth and depth of Dick’s writing with great style. Philip K. Dick and Philosophy is an intelligent, exciting, and highly entertaining read that will be valued by academic philosophers and philosophically-inclined readers of Dick alike.”
—Marya Schechtman, author of The Constitution of Selves
“Philip K. Dick was one of the 20th century’s most penetrating writers concerned with the human condition. Mortality and self-knowledge obsessed him and his work on these topics is some of the most thoughtful we have seen. Amazingly, Dylan Wittkower has managed to assemble a collection of thinkers who not only understand Dick but whose essays will help the rest of us understand him better. This is a collection of substantial writings each of which contributes to P.K. Dick scholarship (a subject worthy of such concern) and contributes to a humanistic side of philosophy we have not seen enough of lately.”
—Joseph C. Pitt, author of Thinking About Technology"
—Lee Goldberg, writer of several Monk TV episodes and author of the bestselling Adrian Monk novels, including Mr. Monk Is Miserable
http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/monk.htm
—Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody
http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/ipod.htm
Papers by D.E. Wittkower
Landon Winner has argued that ‘artifacts have politics’, demonstrating that code can have discriminatory effects, but work in philosophy of technology has not identified what kinds of user exclusion constitute an injustice. Previous theoretical work on affordances has also left non-affordances substantially untheorized, providing no clear basis for distinguishing problematic from unproblematic non-affordances. This paper presents a three-fold division of non-affordances as exclusionary of users due to (a.i) unproblematic mutually exclusive proper functions, due to (a.ii) unproblematic demographically distributed service provision, and due to (b) problematic discriminatory exclusion. Within this third category, two kinds of discriminatory exclusion are identified: (b.i) direct exclusion through interfaces that do not accommodate relevant user groups, and (b.ii) indirect exclusion through recapitulation of existing social prejudices. Within discriminatory forms of exclusion, (b), two ...
In this chapter, I outline an interpersonal phenomenology of privacy oriented by ethics of care, considering privacy as it appears in parenting, friendship, romantic and sexual relationships, and care for elderly and disabled persons. This phenomenology identifies three distinctive dynamics of privacy in interpersonal contexts, having to do with autonomy, intimacy, and consent. These elements of the phenomenology of privacy in interpersonal contexts are then applied to a variety of kinds of IoT devices and systems: GPS navigators, the Amazon Alexa virtual assistant, Nest, and two medical robots—PARO and RIBA.
The most distinctive and useful of these differences are drawn together into conclusions on two major themes. First, that privacy in a legal-juridical context is commodified relative to privacy in interpersonal contexts: in the legal-juridical context, loss of privacy is framed as negative loss where it may appear instead as a positive gain in interpersonal contexts. Second, the strongly divergent understanding of consent as needing constant renewal rather than being a box to be checked in clickthrough licensing seems to demand transformative reforms from companies interested in engineering ethics.
A reading of gamification through Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche, providing an analysis of what makes some forms of gamification life-affirming and true to the earth, while so many others are nihilist.
Full volume here: https://punctumbooks.com/titles/digital-dionysus/