Philosophy of Virtuality: Deliberation, Trust, Offence and Virtues

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Trondheim, NTNU, Dragvoll - March 9-13, 2009

Lecturers (course)
Prof. Charles Ess, Drury University, USA
Prof. John Weckert, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Associate professor May Thorseth, NTNU, Norway
PhD Research fellow Johnny Hartz Søraker, Twente University, Netherlands

Further contributors to workshop part (which is part of the course)
Dr. Annamaria Carusi, Oxford University, UK
Prof. Dag Elgesem, University of Bergen, Norway
(One or two more contributors)

There will be a combination of plenary lectures, presentations and discussions of essay proposals.

Course description
Virtuality will be scrutinized from different perspectives in this combined course and workshop. We believe that virtuality is philosophically and ethically relevant to a range of different aspects of life in a world where most people make use of modern information and communication technologies - most obviously, the Internet, but certainly also Internet-enabled mobile devices. And, as online communications become increasingly interwoven in our lives in the developed world, the 1990s’ distinction between offline and online becomes increasingly limited in contemporary analyses of the Internet and its various interactions with our lives.

Some questions: How might virtual worlds contribute to deliberation online?. How do we draw the line between offenses in online and offline worlds? How is it possible to establish online trust? How do we resolve the ethical challenges evoked by new communication technologies - especially as these challenges intersect with diverse cultural values? Emotivist and rationalist accounts of virtual worlds will be considered. Virtue ethics approach to new technologies will also be discussed.

Credit points
7.5 credits will be given for completed course (requires writing and submitting one essay by the end of the course).

Adressees
PhD candidates, graduate students (course, workshop) and scholars (workshop)

Reading list
More information soon.

Lectures (course)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: More details soon

2 double lectures each day (1 lecture = 90 minutes, including a 15 minutes break in the middle). In addition, there will be presentations and discussions of essay proposals.

Overview of lectures to be announced.

Thursday, Friday (course + workshop):

3 – 4 single lectures á 45 minutes each day and a concluding plenary session on Friday.

Registration or questions
Please send an email to may.thorseth@hf.ntnu.no. Upon registration, please provide the following information: Your full name, position/institutional belonging, and postal address.

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