Conference: 'Coming To Terms With Technology: Thinking With/In/Through Hannah Arendt'
When: October 23rd & October 24th, 2025
Where: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels [Elsene])
Keynote: Dr. Waseem Yaqoob (Queen Mary University of London)
Attending the conference is open to all, but registration is required: judith.van.lookeren.campagne[at]vub.be
Conference prologue: On October 2nd, Dr. Wout Cornelissen will give an online talk about 'Arendt and Technology Between Freedom and Necessity'. More information can be found here.
Organized by Dr. Julia Maria Mönig, Dr. Anthony Longo, and Judith Campagne. With support from The Centre for Ethics and Humanism (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and the Center for European Philosophy (University of Antwerp).
In recent years, there has been an upsurge in literature examining the relationship between technology and Hannah Arendt’s political thought. This scholarly interest has taken multiple directions. Some authors have used Arendt’s concepts of plurality, the private, and natality as normative tools to critically assess contemporary technologies like social media (e.g. Schwarz 2014; Mönig 2017; Smith 2017; Forrestal 2020; Daus 2024). Others have turned their attention to the methodological aspects of Arendt’s work, reflecting on her distinct approach to thinking and the attitude she embodies as a thinker to grapple with technological developments (e.g. Gordon 2021; Baş 2022; Longo 2024). Still others have uncovered the ways in which Arendt herself engaged with the technological developments of her time, including nuclear weapons, cybernetics, and the space race (Markell 2011; Yaqoob 2014; Simbirski 2016; Hyvönen 2016; Undurraga 2019).
This conference seeks to contribute to this growing interest by exploring how specific technological developments have influenced Arendt’s thinking and shaped the content of her work. In light of the accelerating pace of 21st-century technological advancements, Arendt’s work offers a compelling example of how one can think (politically) with and through technology. Accordingly, the aim of this gathering is not only to analyze the relationship between Arendt and technology but also to conduct Arendtian thinking exercises on contemporary technological phenomena and to explore their influence on our active and mental lives.
The theme of “coming to terms with technology” is central to this conference. As Arendt observed, the advent of new technologies, changing the way life unfolds on earth, requires that ‘we come to terms with and reconcile ourselves to reality, that is, try to be at home in the world’ (Arendt [1954] 2005, 308). While digital transformations are often (and sometimes rightfully) framed as existential threats to political and societal stability, Arendt’s reflections on crises in culture remind us that such moments also present opportunities for reflection, judgment, and new beginnings. This dual focus—on the challenges and the opportunities of technological transformation—guides the discussions we hope to foster.
Thursday October 23rd (Room TBA) | Friday October 24th (Room TBA) |
12.30: Registration + Lunch | 09.00: Panel 3 3.1: ‘Algorithmic verisimilitude’ by Raffaele Molisse
3.2: 'Reassessing Factual Truth in the Age of AI: Challenging the Post-Fact Discourse through Arendt’s Thinking' by Annelies Verbeeck
3.3: ‘Generative AI as a totalitarian threat?’ by Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen |
13.15: Welcome address | 10.30: Break |
13.30: Panel 1 1.1: ‘History as Contingent Causation and the Rise of Modern Technology: An Arendtian Perspective’ by Michalis Dagtzis
1.2: ‘An Arendtian Perspective on the Technology of Crime Control’ by Pieter De Witte
1.3: ‘Can we think what we are doing? Arendt’s ambiguity concerning technology in The Human Condition in relation to Anders’ by Julien Kloeg | 11.00: Panel 4 4.1: ‘The Desolation by Language’ by Adam Knowles
4.2: ‘Techne, Technology, and Democratisation: Reading Arendt with Heidegger’ by Evangelia Danadaki
4.3: ‘The Arendtian Gestell’ by Jurgita Imbrasaite |
15.00: Break | 12.30: Lunch |
15.30: Panel 2 2.1: ‘Before the Empirical Turn: Hannah Arendt’s Reception in Dutch Philosophy of Technology’ by Massimiliano Simons
2.2: ‘The (techno-)human Condition: Hannah Arendt in the history of the philosophy of technology’ by Agostino Cera
2.3: ‘Freedom and Mastery in Arendt’s History of Science’ by Moriah Poliakoff | 13.30: Panel 5 5.1: ‘Infrastructure as world building: Political Non-neutrality of Urban technologies’ by Melis Baş and Olya Kudina
5.2: ‘Arendt’s Critique of Sovereignty: A Critique of Total Digitalization?’ by Jean-Baptiste Ghins
5.3: ‘Coming to terms with the power grid: electricity and the society of laborers’ by Geert Van Eekert |
17.00: Break | 15.00 Break |
17.30: Keynote Waseem Yaqoob
| 15.30: Panel 6 6.1: The “Inverted World” in Arendt’s View on Technology’ by Ryunosuke Wada
6.2: ‘Facing Up to Reality in Inhuman Times’ by Fenella Amarasinghe
6.3: ‘Beyond Monism and Dualism. World, Technology, and Environmental Crisis’ by Letizia Konderak |
19.00 Closing Remarks day 1 | 17.00 Closing remarks |
More information about directions toward the VUB main campus can be found here: https://www.vub.be/en/about-vub/faculties-institutes-and-campuses/our-campuses/vub-main-campus-brussels/directions