University of Bologna, Italy, 4-5 June 2026.

Both classical and contemporary pragmatism have made a decisive contribution to our understanding of the centrality of technological processes in human life (Hickman, 1990).

This pragmatist approach challenges long-standing dichotomies in an original way. For instance, by rejecting the means-ends dichotomy, pragmatists – and more specifically John Dewey – acknowledge that technological innovations are not neutral but instead reshape and reorganize ends, values and ideals. In short, while there are no purely value-free technological means, there are also no ends in themselves that cannot be questioned and revised in light of new technologies.

This two-day conference aims to discuss the relationship between technology and values from a specifically Deweyan perspective. It will tackle the question of values and technology by addressing it transversally: from the point of view of ethics, aesthetics, sociology, natural sciences and pedagogy, while taking into account such topics as AI, design, education, and political conflict.

The various contributions will analyze the ways in which new technologies, or a technologically infrastructured environment: 1) influence the experience of aesthetic, moral and socio-political values; 2) enable the emergence of new values; (3) render obsolete values that were previously taken for granted.

This is the first conference organized by the Center for Dewey Studies Italy in collaboration with the Research Center Almæsthetics, with the support of The Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy and the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bologna.

Programme

Sala Rossa, Via Azzo Gardino 23, University of Bologna

Day 1 – June 4 (morning session)

9:45-10:00

Welcome

10:00-10:20

Larry A. Hickman (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale) – online

Introductory Remarks

10:20-11:20

David L. Hildebrand (University of Colorado Denver)

Pragmatic Existentialism: Dewey’s Starting Point and the Dangerous Automaticity of AI

11:20-11:40

Coffee Break

11:40-12:40

Pierre Steiner (Université de Technologie de Compiègne)

Does the Value of the Future Lie in Progress? Pragmatism and Artificial Intelligence

12:40-14:30

Lunch

Day 1 – June 4 (afternoon session)

14:30-15:30

Maria Regina Brioschi (Università Statale di Milano)

Design, AI and the Public: Imagine the Future with Dewey

15:30-15:50

Coffee Break

15:50-16:50

Henrik Rydenfelt (University of Helsinki)

Meliorist Social Inquiry: Pragmatism in the Study of Emerging Technologies

Day 2 – June 5

9:30-10:30

Matthew J. Brown (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale)

The Metaphysics and Ethics of AI: A Deweyan Perspective

10:30-10:50

Coffee break

10:50-11:50

Giovanni Matteucci (Università di Bologna)

Values and Technologies Intertwined: ‘Art’ after Dewey

11:50-12:50

Gioia Laura Iannilli & Matteo Santarelli (Università di Bologna)

Values and Design: Structures, Functions and Articulations of Experience