The doctoral course Introduction to Philosophy of Technology, a collaboration between the Department of Informatics at Lund University (LU) School of Economics and Management and the Division of Informatics at University West (HV), launched last autumn. The course aims to help doctoral researchers understand the relationship between technology, science, society and everyday life. This is done through an active philosophical analysis of assumptions on technology as a mainstream condition in society.
Why Philosophy of Technology?
Course directors Osama Mansour (LU) and Amir Haj-Bolouri (HV) are both interested in philosophy. They came together to create a course that could give students a deeper understanding of technology, humans and the world, while hopefully inspiring their future research.
“I love philosophy. I think everyone should learn it because it helps in expanding the range of possibilities for understanding phenomena and in deep ways.” – Osama Mansour
“Being engaged with philosophy of various kind, and have been teaching philosophy of science for doctoral students for many years, I felt that it is a shame that there are barely any courses in philosophy of technology for doctoral students.” – Amir Haj-Bolouri
Doctoral students were impressed with the course
The course evaluation for autumn 2025 showed great results. The course valuation survey had a 75% response rate. 89% of respondants had an excellent general impression of the course. All respondants indicated they would recommend the course to other doctoral students.
Amir and Osama were both glad to see the diversity among students in terms of their academic disciplines, sparking many interesting discussions and seminars. This was something they had in mind when designing the course.
“The outcome of the course has turned out very well, both from the students’ perspectives and our perspectives as teachers. It has been very inspiring to engage with the students through seminars and discussions that push our understandings about the intricacies of a human-technology-world relation in various forms and contexts.” – Amir Haj-Bolouri
“The course has been very educational! ... For me, the main outcome was learning together with the students about technology in a new light and breaking away from exhausted notions of technology.” – Osama Mansour
We got to speak with two doctoral students who took part of the course during its debut.
Nemi Pelgrom
Doctoral student Nemi Pelgrom is researching computer science at Linnaeus University. She was interested in joining the course to help her gain knowledge in the philosophical aspects of implementing generative AI.
Why did you choose the course Introduction to Philosophy of Technology?
“I have a background in theoretical philosophy, and am currently doing my PhD in computer science, so I wanted to get to spend some time on philosophy relevant to my new research aims. This course seemed perfect for that!”
How did the course inspire and shape your understanding of the meaning of technology?
“It was interesting to learn about the ideas that have been parallel to the work I've heard about from the authors that were mentioned in the course. I learned both wide and deep theories that can be applied wide and deep as well. Overall very inspirational course!”
I learned both wide and deep theories that can be applied wide and deep as well. Overall very inspirational course!
How has the course altered your intellectual identity as a PhD researcher working with technology?
“In my field there is only a limited amount of reflection possible to fit into any project, the discussion of the effects of techological development is usually limited to a few paragraphs or sentences in a paper. I was longing to spend some time on looking deeper into the philosophical questions that are related to my research, and this course allowed me, and helped me, to do just that.”
Can you describe a moment in your PhD work where ideas from the course may have changed how you would frame your research problem?
“I've learned about several new concepts and researchers that I'm now incorporating into several of my papers, which I wouldn't have heard of without the lectures and seminars in this course.”
What advice would you give to someone interested in applying for a doctoral course at the Department of Informatics, Lunds University School of Economics and Management?
“Start sketching your final essay early so that you can get the most out of the feedback from the other students and the teachers, it is great to get detailed feedback on a paper draft by others than your supervisors to get to hear other angles and other opinions. And also remember that this is a philosophy course, remember to take the opportunity to question your own projects and ideas!”
Andreas Forsting
Doctoral student Andreas Forsting is researching information systems at Copenhagen Business School. Andreas joined the course in the hope of gaining a theoretical and conceptual basis for his thesis work.
Why did you choose the course Introduction to Philosophy of Technology?
“During work on my first short paper, I came across the work of Andrew Feenberg, a renowned philosopher of technology. Having just started my PhD journey months prior, I found that it helped me begin to answer some question I had left over from my Master’s thesis.
This led me to search for courses on Philosophy of Technology to establish a firmer philosophical foundation for my work going forward. My own university (or Denmark, even) offered no introductory courses, and so Lund University came to the rescue in that regard. Philosophy of Technology is somewhat of a niche field, and so I was lucky that Lund University decided to offer such a course.”
How did the course inspire and shape your understanding of the meaning of technology?
“The course helped spark an understanding of technology as something which is not only socially co-constituted, but also as something which fundamentally impacts the world and the way we see it. While I never subscribed to the notion of neutral technologies, the course did an excellent job of demonstrating just how value-laden technology can actually be and provided a lot of philosophical lenses to explore. The course also provided a great grounding in the historical development of the concept of technology from ancient Greece to the present.
The course also did a good job of highlighting just how many different areas of life technology impacts, from freedom to social justice, and presenting these themes openly in a way that inspired further thinking.”
The course also did a good job of highlighting just how many different areas of life technology impacts, from freedom to social justice, and presenting these themes openly in a way that inspired further thinking.
How has the course altered your intellectual identity as a PhD researcher working with technology?
“In many ways the course has helped refine my academic identity. I am very much researching the same things now as when I started, but the course has provided me with a lot of vocabulary, literature, and theoretical grounding which has really improved my work. Before starting the course, I struggled with the ambition to critique the large-scale societal issues which stem from technology but lacked a way to concretise that critique into something which might instigate change. By addressing that exact duality in the course, I’ve come to see that the philosophical angle can serve as a basis from which to do more grounded work.
It has also helped conceptualise my own insistence that whatever the newest iteration of digital technology happens to be, AI currently, is not the primary problem. Rather, we need to look at the larger patterns of technology to create real change.”
Can you describe a moment in your PhD work where ideas from the course may have changed how you would frame your research problem?
“The course introduced me to the work of Jacques Ellul whose concept of ‘technique’ has become somewhat central to my understanding of the techno-optimistic society we live in. From almost the first session I started to read and incorporate Ellul into my work, parallel to the course. At the time I was working on my first short-paper, and I was missing a way to define a core concept. Ellul provided me with the exact vocabulary I needed. The course in this sense helped me scaffold and frame many of my own thoughts, and more productively engage them. Even if many of these philosophical works that we engaged with do not make their way into the final dissertation, they have been critical catalysts for a lot of important thinking.”
What advice would you give to someone interested in applying for a doctoral course at the Department of Informatics, Lunds University School of Economics and Management?
“The process of applying itself was smooth, so there is not much advice to give there. For this specific course I would just give the advice that people should apply regardless of background. We had PhD candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds and it resulted in super fascinating discussions which help rattle your domain echo-chamber a bit. If your work even remotely relates to technology, this course will help you think critically about it.”
