4th Panhellenic Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

The Age of Design
Keynote address by Luciano Floridi (Oxford)

Each age has innovated its cultures, societies, and environments by relying (also) on three main elements: discovery, invention, and design. Yet innovation has often proceeded unevenly, like a three-legged stool in which one leg is longer than the others. Post-renaissance and early modernity may be qualified as the age of discoveries (especially geographic). Late modernity is still an age of discoveries, but perhaps it is even more an age of inventions. Of course, all ages have also been ages of design, at least because discoveries and inventions require ingenious ways of giving form to new and old realities. In his talk, Professor Floridi argues that our age is quintessentially and more than any other the age of design, and seeks to clarify that statement, indicate what may be the most appropriate logic of design, and explains why philosophy may be interpreted today as conceptual design.

BIO Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, where he is Director of the OII Digital Ethics Lab. He is a world-renowned expert on digital ethics, the ethics of AI, the philosophy of information, and the philosophy of technology. He has published more than 300 works, translated into many languages. He is deeply engaged with policy initiatives on the socio-ethical value and implications of digital technologies and their applications, and collaborates closely on these topics with many governments and companies worldwide.