[Mon, 9.00–11.00 a.m.] The Past of the Future and the Scope of the New: On the Actuality of the Future in the Light of Economic Philosophy

Livestream on Monday, 23 September 2024, 9 a.m.–11 a.m. CEST

Chair: Ingrid Becker (St. Gallen) / Michaela Haase (Berlin) / Verena Rauen (St. Gallen)

Panel members:

• Frank den Hond
  Ehrnrooth Professor for Management und Organisation, Hanken School of Economics, Finnland, and affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands 
• Daryl Koehn 
  Wicklander Chair in Professional Ethics und Professor of Philosophy at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Ralf Lüfter
  Professor of Moral Philosophy, Freie Universität Bozen, Italy 
• Akos Rona-Tas
  Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, USA

Economic philosophy and ethics share a fascination for new beginnings and transformations with other disciplines or subject areas. Within economic philosophy, or Wirtschaftsphilosophie, it is emphasized that the expectation of the future is subject to the paradox that the future is hardly possible without recourse to the past. Thus, any expectation is generated by a projection of past experience and consequently always refers back to what is already known.

Against this background, how can we imagine a radically open future and, moreover, do we even need such ideas in order to bring about transformations or innovations? In philosophy and related disciplines, there have been various approaches to dealing with this “paradox of the future” and the resulting challenges for the new, especially in the form of transformations and innovations. We want to discuss these approaches with regard to a number of questions. Using the example of digitalization, we will address the paradox of the future, its contextualization as well as its critical reflection.

The panelists will be invited to comment on the following and related questions:
1. How can we grasp the “paradox of the future” philosophically?
2. What social realities can the projection of the future produce in the form of economic, digital and other practices and theories? What does innovation and transformation make possible against the backdrop of the past influencing the future? How are digitalization or artificial intelligence involved in dealing with the “paradox of the future”?
3. What can be said about the ethical or political desirability of possible futures?

[Mon, 2.00–3.15 p.m.] From Theoretical Philosophy of AI to Applied Ethics of AI

Livestream on Monday, 23 September 2024, 2.00–3.15 p.m. CEST

[Mon, 10.00–11.30 p.m.] Philosophy & Diversity

Livestream on Monday, 23 September 2024, 10.00–11.30 p.m. CEST

[Tue, 10.00–11.30 p.m.] Philosophy & The Digital

Livestream on Tuesday, 24 September 2024, 10.00–11.30 p.m. CEST

[Wed, 9.00–11.00 a.m.] A Small World after All? Philosophy in a Global Perspective

Livestream on Wednesday, 25 September 2024, 9.00–11.00 a.m. CEST

Chair: Anke Graness (Hildesheim) / Peter Adamson (München)

The nature of philosophy has always been a contentious matter in the European tradition. Now, matters have become still more complex, as received ideas about what philosophy is are being supplemented and critically reconsidered in light of perspectives from other cultures and regions.

Does this global approach threaten to undermine the unity and coherence of philosophy as a discipline, even as it seeks to enrich and broaden the available conceptions of that discipline? What has it meant to pursue philosophy in marginalised regions such as Africa, where philosophers have confronted the challenges of racist stereotypes, colonialism and neo-colonialism? What changes will digitalisation bring for intercultural or global philosophizing?

We will discuss these and other questions with Alena Rettova (Bayreuth), Sarhan Dhouib (Hildesheim) and Franziska Dübgen (Münster). The discussion will be chaired by Anke Graness (Hildesheim) and Peter Adamson (Munich).