1st Department lecture, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam

1. Poiêsis
how human and artificial epistemic agents
co-produce techno-scientific knowledge
Federica Russo
Philosophy & ILLC | Amsterdam
russofederica.wordpress.com| @federicarusso

2. 2

3. Science
⇌
Technology
3
Phil Science
⇌
Phil Technology

4. How is knowledge generated
in techno-scientific contexts?
4
What is the role of instruments
in this process?

5. Overview
Motivation: Two episodes of techno-science
Exposure research and computational history of ideas
What is knowledge?
Received views from Phil Sci, Phil Tech, STS
Knowledge as Relational, Embodied, Distributed, Material
How is knowledge produced in techno-scientific practices?
Poiêsis: How human and artificial agents co-produce knowledge
The epistemic and normative aspects of poiêsis
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6. Exposure research
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7. • Sensors, smartphones, GPS
• Biobanks
• Omic technologies for biomarkers
identification and validation
• Liquid chromatography
• Mass spectometry
• Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• …
• Statistics softwares
Technologies are essential at all stages:
data generation and collection, analysis,
interpretation and theory building, …
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8. Computational history of ideas
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9. • Digitalisation of texts
• Various technologies for digitalising
and texts and make them
searchable
• Algorithm-based and ontology-based
searches
• These are not purely computational
methods
• Very large digital corpora
• Allows not just for more texts to be
analysed but for different types of
information to gather
Technologies open up novel spaces for
historical investigation
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10. What is ‘knowledge’
in contexts like these?
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11. What I could find in the literature
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Mainstream PhilSci:
No instruments, all about
theory and propositional
content
PhilTech:
Instruments mediate or are
bearers of knowledge
STS:
‘Technocratic’ regimes
contribute to the
‘solidification’ of knowledge

12. What I am interested in
The process of knolwedge production, rather than solidification
How human epistemic agents use instruments to produce knowledge
What difference this makes to our conceptualisation of knowledge
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13. What I need
A broad enough concept of knowledge
Many ways of generating knowledge: experiments, formal modelling, close
reading, theories and concepts, …
Many elements of knowledge: material, vernacular, formal, …
But mainly, instruments seem to do more than just
Mediating between us and the world
Augmenting our capacities to see the smaller or the bigger
Enhancing ability to analyse more data
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14. Redesigning
the concept of knowledge
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15. ReDiEM Knowledge
Knowledge is a product of techno-scientific activities carried out by epistemic agents, it is often
expressed in propositional form in natural language, it is also encapsulated in material objects,
and is situated with respect to a number of social, cultural, or material aspects
Not a definition, but a broad characterisation
Elements about Relation, Distribution, Embodiement, Materiality are as important as propositional
content and vernacularity
These elements are interrelated, rather than isolated
Any element can become more prominent, depending on the specific question at hand
My question, reformulated:
How to cash out the partnership of human and artificial agents
in the process of knowledge production?
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16. Poiêsis
Or, how human and artificial epistemic agents co-produce knowledge

17. The legacy
From Greek thinking:
Poiêsis is about producting artefacts, it is about technê rather than epistêmê
At the root of the (alleged) superiority of epistêmê over technê
From contemporary Philosophy of Information
Poiêsis is (also) about producing the situations moral agents are in, and that are
subject to ethical assessment
Useful to reduce moral luck
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18. The semantic space of the poiêsis
The poietic character of human epistemic agents:
The production of artefacts by human agents
A topos of Greek philosophy and of philosophy of technology, not my main interest here;
The production of knowledge by human epistemic agents;
An expansion of Phil Information ‘homo poieticus’ as moral agent, it includes human epistemic agents as
techno-scientists and as philosophers
The poietic character of artificial agents
The power of technical objects to interact and modify the environment
Digital and analogue technologies have this power (in degrees), we learn from Simondon
The partnership of human and artificial epistemic agents
This partnership comes with important responsibilities, both epistemic and moral ones
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19. Why does it matter?
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20. Knowledge production is distributed
Human and artificial epistemic agents produce knowledge
An epistemic point:
Knowledge production is not a prerogative of us human(s)
Technologies, the environment, materiality and embodiment, situatedness … are all essential
elements
A normative point
Distribution in the process of production of knowledge does not mean less responsibility from us
human epistemic agents
We still have responsibility for the knowledge we produce, the artefacts we design and develop, the
policies we implement, …
Epistemology and ethics must go hand in hand
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21. A vision for the field
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22. Philosophy of Science
Philosophy
of
Technology
Science and
Technology Studies
Ethics/
Political
Philosophy
Philosophy of
Techno-Science
The intellectual and academic space
where different perspectives and
traditions meet and fruitfuilly
dialogue about techno-science
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23. The journey begins here
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24. Poiêsis
how human and artificial epistemic agents
co-produce techno-scientific knowledge
Federica Russo
Philosophy & ILLC | Amsterdam
russofederica.wordpress.com| @federicarusso
Thank you for your attention