Asle H. Kiran

Department of Philosophy

Faculty of Behavioural Science

University of Twente

P.O. Box 217

NL 7500 AE Enschede

Netherlands

Office: Cubicus B220, Campus University of Twente

Phone: +31-53-489-2308

Email: a.h.kiran@utwente.nl

Background

Asle H. Kiran is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente. Kiran studied Philosophy, Psychology and Linguistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, graduating with a PhD in Philosophy in 2009. His interests in Philosophy include Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of AI, Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology. In the period 1999-2009 he taught courses in Logic, History of Philosophy, Linguistics, Communication Studies, Psychology, Philosophy of Science, and Evolutionary Theory at the NTNU.

Research

Kiran’s MA-dissertation, Organism and Lifeworld (1999), is a work along the lines of the external mind thesis and investigates how meaning is non-trivially scaffolded on aspects external to the mind. It builds on both analytical philosophy of mind and continental and phenomenological conceptions of embedded perception and action. Besides philosophy, ecological psychology and evolutionary theory informs the investigation. Kiran argues for a dynamic relation between mind and world, where our cognition is shaped by our surroundings and where we actively shape our surroundings while cognizing. This theme is carried over into Kiran’s PhD-work, although the focus on the external aspects is narrowed down to technologies. However, the dissertation, The Primacy of Action – Technological Co-Constitution of Practical Space (2009), also expands the scope, in arguing that technologies are co-constitutive in the shaping of selves. Rather than being a mere consequence of its past experiences, he argues, the self is more importantly constituted by its plans, its projects, and its possibilities. Heidegger’s important assertion that we are always in a state of becoming serves as the starting point for an investigation of how the self’s becoming happens through technological possibilities: The possibilities that we see ourselves as having – both “right here, right now” and “in life” – are fundamentally related to the possibilities that are afforded us through our surroundings. Thus, the recurring theme in Kiran’s work is the perceptual and “actional” relation between man and world: What mediates this relation? How is the mediation constituted? And how does the mediating relation itself contribute to the constitution of both man and world? Kiran’s main assertion in this respect is that a narrow study of cognition, although interesting in itself and most probably true about some aspects of the mind, leaves out important and interesting aspects of the man-world relation.

At October 1 2009, Kiran joined the Department of Philosophy, working on the multidisciplinary project “Telecare at home. Anticipating conflicting norms in telemonitoring technologies for chronic patients”. This project aims to bring ethical and philosophical awareness into the design stage of telemonitoring devices. Clearly, monitoring technologies have the potential of disrupting the autonomy of patients, and they change radically the relation between patients and healthcare personnel; from face-to-face to a mediated one. It has been seen that these changes result in new and differing perceptions of needs, priorities and other norms of use. The assumption is that a more explicit awareness of potential conflicts in the design stage will alleviate the negative potential, and given that, contribute to the development of technologies where various considerations lead to more congruent forms of application. In this project, Kiran will investigate how external technologies disturb the (alleged) autonomy of selves and affect not just behaviour, but the whole self-identity. Some of the key questions to be addressed are: What possibilities and constraints face patients when many aspects of the healthcare are taken over by telemonitoring technologies? How does this affect the patient’s understanding of the situation, and how does it affect the patient’s self-understanding? Furthermore, Kiran will formulate the shaping impact of such technologies in a manner that discloses technologies as having ethical dimensions. If technologies shape us as selves, it is implied that they also shape us as moral human beings, that is, technologies shape the conditions for our ethical choices. What does such a claim mean, and what does it imply for our moral reasoning? And, moreover, what does this imply in terms of how we more generally understand moral reasoning.

Courses

Kiran is not involved in any teaching.

Publications

2010: “Responsible Design. Theoretical perspectives on designer-user dynamics”, forthcoming

2010: “Upgrading the Mind – How to Conceptualize Technology in the Extended Thesis”

2010: “The Common Presuppositions of Technological Determinism and Technological Instrumentalism”, forthcoming

2010: “Don Ihde’s Typology of the Human-Technology Relation – A Closer Look at Background Relations”, forthcoming

2010: “Interview with Langdon Winner”, interview, in transcription

2010: “Technology, Practical Space and the Self”, forthcoming

2009: The Primacy of Action. Technological Co-Constitution of Practical Space. NTNU, Faculty of Arts, 2009:105

1999: Organisme og omverden. Mind-Body problemet sett i lys av subjektiviteten som en funksjon. [Organism and Lifeworld. Subjectivity Regarded as a Function] Publications of the Department of Philosophy, NTNU, no. 32 (in Norwegian)

1999: “Mentale representasjoner og psykologiske forklaringsmodeller av intelligent atferd” [“Mental Representations in Explanations of Behaviour”] Parabel vol III, nr. 1, 33-44 (in Norwegian)

1998: “What is it like to be a Zombie?”, Parabel vol II, nr. 2, 29-41 (in Norwegian)

Talks (selected)

2009: “Why Technologies Aren’t Body Extensions”, The Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences Annual Conference, Washington, 30.10.2009

2009: “The Concept of ‘Technological Action’”, PhD-lecture, NTNU, 29.05.2009

2009: “Technological Constitution of Practical Space”, The Nordic Society for Phenomenology, 7th Annual Meeting, Tampere, 24.04.2009

2007: “The Constitution of Mind”, Workshop: “Externalism and Internalism in the Philosophy of Mind”, NTNU, 20.11.2007

2007: “The Primacy of Action – Technologies of Meaning”, Technoscience Research Group, SUNY Stony Brook, 12.02.2007

2006: “A Phenomenology of Technology”, Ph.D-seminar, LIKT, NTNU, 10.11.2006

2006: “From Reduction to Interaction to Interdependence”, The Nordic Society for Phenomenology, 4th Annual meeting, Reykjavik, 23.04.2006

2005: “Technology and the Self”, Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, 25.10.2005