In this project you will investigate the politics of conceptual engineering from a pluralist perspective, taking socially disruptive technologies (SDTs) as a case in point.
Job description
Socially disruptive technologies are sites of intense controversy in which value conflicts prevent a straightforward, algorithmic optimization process that would satisfy all stakeholdersâ values (van de Poel, 2021; Popa et al., 2023). Furthermore, the concepts typically employed for making sense of the technology in question as well as its impacts become themselves open for revision. The conceptual structures that form the stakeholdersâ fundamental (âhingeâ) commitments are themselves at issue in the disagreement space (Pritchard, 2025; Ranalli, 2020). For such contexts, the process of conceptual engineering has been proposed for jointly reconstructing the concepts involved in both descriptive processes of understanding the technology and its impact and in normative processes of evaluating moral impact and responsibility (Burgess & Plunkett, 2013; Chalmers, 2020; Thomasson, 2021). However, although the involvement of concepts in the disagreement space naturally suggests conceptual engineering as a means to approach controversies around SDTs, the solution is hardly straightforward. To start with, a concept acquires authority to capture reality and prescribe over it only due to âstatus functionsâ (Searle, 1996) imposed by those who establish the concepts. It has already been pointed out that this brings up a problem of conceptual authority. The procedural aspects of conceptual engineering therefore raise political issues of justice and representation. This is illustrated, e.g., in the Dworkin-Williams debate on whether the value of liberty indeed clashes with that of equality and, if so, who gets to say in such matters and on what basis (Dworkin, 2011; Queloz, 2024). Conceptual engineering, particularly of concepts that can normatively shape our reality, must therefore be seen as a political struggle that brings up the question of authority and just representation (Cueni, 2024). The recently discussed phenomenon of conceptual appropriation illustrates how stakeholders can assert claims over ambiguous phenomena to align with their specific interests (Hopster et al., 2024).
In this project the candidate will examine the political dimensions of conceptual engineering through the lenses of pluralism. The PhD student will investigate how the notion of pluralism in its various expressions (liberal pluralism, agonistic pluralism etc.) can be of use in approaching the disruption created by SDTs such that the political dimension of conceptual engineering is better acknowledged and understood. This will involve translating insights from areas of moral and political philosophy not necessarily concerned with technology into the philosophy of technology and developing a better understanding of how decision-making under value incommensurability applies to instances of conceptual engineering.
This PhD position will be part of the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies programme, a ten year long international research programme of seven academic institutions in the Netherlands that has started in January 2020. The programme has the aim of achieving breakthrough research in at the intersection of ethics, philosophy, technology and social sciences, and to position its consortium at the top of its field internationally. A key objective is to investigate how new technologies challenge moral values and ontological concepts (like ânatureâ, âhuman beingâ and âcommunityâ), and how these challenges necessitate a revision of these concepts. The project is embedded in the Concpetual Disruption research line of the ESDiT programme. Further information about the programme can be obtained from the ESDiT website: https://www.esdit.nl/.
Working at the TPM faculty, the candidate will have ample opportunity to establish deep interactions with case studies from the emerging technologies studied at TU Delft and other technological universities in The Netherlands. These will function as an empirical underpinning of the entire project.
Job requirements
- You have, or are about to receive, a Master's Degree in Philosophy, Science and Technology Studies (STS) or a related discipline.
- You have demonstrated affinity with, and expertise in philosophy (in case you do not have a degree in philosophy).
- You have affinity with technology.
- You have good analytical and concpetual skills.
- You are proficient in English.
- You are able to do independent research and have excellent writing and publication skills.
You are expected to perform high quality and internationally visible research with publications in peer-reviewed journals. You will be supervised by Prof. dr. ir. Ibo van de Poel (Technical University Delft) and dr. Eugen Popa (Technical University Delft), with support from dr. Jeroen Hopster (Utrecht University).
Your work location is Delft. We expect that you will move to the Netherlands, to the region where the university is located or to a region from which a daily commute is feasible.
More information can be found here: https://www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/352165/phd-conceptual-engineering-as-political-struggle-in-the-context-of-socially-disruptive-technologies/