Technology shapes how we live, work, and relate to one another. It holds great promise for enhancing human well-being—improving health, safety, connection, and comfort—yet it can also create new forms of stress, inequality, and harm.
In this PhD course, we explore the complex relationship between technology and human well-being. We ask fundamental questions such as: What does human well-being entail? How do technologies promote or undermine it? Who gets to design technologies that shape our well-being? and What values are embedded, prioritized, or neglected in these designs?
We also investigate the philosophical foundations of designing for values, focusing on theories of well-being, the nature of values, and how they can be integrated into technological design processes. Attention is given to value conflicts and value change, and how these dynamics influence what it means to design for well-being in diverse contexts. Throughout the course, we discuss and analyze a variety of case studies, including those involving artificial intelligence and digital health, to explore how design can foster or hinder human flourishing.
The aims/objectives are as follows:
- Understand the relation between technology, values, and human well-being.
- Argue why technology can or cannot embody values (and if so, how).
- Explain basic notions of values and human well-being within philosophy and other relevant disciplines.
- Differentiate main approaches to designing for human well-being.
- Characterise and discuss ‘value conflict’ and ‘value change’ and understand the implications of these phenomena for designing for values and designing for human well-being.
- Evaluate technology in terms of its impact on human well-being.
Programme
This course takes place from February 9-13.
Full program TBA.
List of topics:
- Technology and values: brief historical overview about thinking about values and technology in philosophy of technology; technology: value- neutral or value-laden?
- Embedding values in technology: how to think about the connection between value and technology; Key theories and philosophical accounts of how values can be embedded in technology
- Design for values: design for Values and Value Sensitive Design, and other approaches of embedding values in technology (e.g., participatory design); value conceptualisation and value specification; value conflict and changing values
- Understanding wellbeing: different conceptualizations and theories of wellbeing
- Wellbeing and technology: exploration of how technology can enhance or undermine wellbeing
- Designing for wellbeing: approaches to designing for wellbeing; examples and cases
Lecturers
- Steffen Steinert, TU Delft
- Ibo van de Poel, TU Delft
- Pieter Desmet (TU Delft)
- Naomi Jacobs (University of Twente)
- Matthew Dennis (TU Eindhoven)
- Iluia Lefter (TU Delft)
- and others
Aim / objective
After the course participants will be able to:
· Understand the relation between technology, values, and well-being
· Argue why technology can or cannot embody values (and if so how)
· Explain basic notions of values and well-being within philosophy and other relevant disciplines
· Differentiate main approaches to designing for values
· Characterize and discuss ‘value conflict’ and ‘value change’, and understand the implications of these phenomena for designing for values and designing for well-being
· Evaluate technology in terms of well-being
Preparation and Assessment
Active participation is required. Each session has a number of required readings, that participants should have read beforehand.
As a final assignment, participants will be asked to write a blog post (or a similar assignment) to complete the course.
Please note that the primary target group for this event are PhD students. However, if places available, ReMa students can also register. In order to receive the ECTs for this course, their blog post will be graded with a pass or fail.
Credit points
Study load is the equivalent of: 5 ECTS.
Costs
The course is free for PhD candidates who are a member of the 4TU Center for Ethics and Technology and/or OZSW.
The course is also free for ReMa students who are a member of the OZSW and/or 4TU Center for Ethics and Technology.
All others will pay a registration fee of €300.
Registration/application form
Registration is possible on the OZSW website.
If places available, also open to
ReMa students, Postdocs, and others: If you are interested in participating, please send an email to secretariaat@ozsw.nl to be put on a waiting list. You will be notified a few weeks before the start of the course if you can register and join the course.
Registration is open until January 27th, 2026.
More information
This course is a collaboration between OZSW, 4TU.Ethics, and the Delft Design for Values Institute.
Main Lectures
- Steffen Steinert, section Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Department of Values, Technology and Innovation, School of Technology, Policy & Management, TU Delft S.steinert@tudelft.nl
- Ibo van de Poel, section Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Department of Values, Technology and Innovation, School of Technology, Policy & Management, TU Delft i.r.vandepoel@tudelft.nl