Podcast — Episode 24

From Einstein’s Philosophy to the Ethics of High Technology: A Conversation With Don Howard

Don Howard

Our guest on this episode is Don Howard, the former director and a Fellow of the University of Notre Dame’s Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values.

In this podcast: 

Why Einstein was not only a great scientist, but an important philosopher of science (1:30) — How Einstein found the intellectual courage to go against tradition (3:00) — From physics major to philosopher of science (5:30) — Do physicists and other scientists take an interest in the philosophy of science? The Seven Pines Symposium (9:30) — History and Philosophy of Science at Notre Dame (12:30) —  What happens when high-tech employees protest a Pentagon contract? (15:45) — The state of virtue ethics among technologists (19:00) — What happened to virtue ethics during the enlightenment? (20:45) — How does virtue ethics work in practice, within a given community? (24:30) — How to deal with overlapping communities of practice (25:30) — How to think about some current problems in technology and robot ethics: Should robots have rights? … What about self-driving cars? … Autonomous weapons?? … Robot scabs and the universal basic income

Download



Don Howard’s lecture at UT Dallas was sponsored by the Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology.

This conversation was recorded at UT Dallas on March 7, 2019.

The Athenaeum Review podcast is produced by Creative Disturbance.

Filed under PhilosophyCenter for Values in Medicine Science and TechnologyEinsteinethicstechnology