Minor Anthropology and Ethics of Technics

We generally consider technology as a very useful tool to improve our life, to solve problems and to enjoy ourselves. Though, is there any negative downside? Has human being lost something of his/her peculiar nature? Is human being enhanced or diminished? How human being has changed with technological progress? Did we lose any particular value during that evolution?

This course will be set on four parts:

• Anthropological inquiry on Technics
  • New sociability
  • A New Narcissism
  • The impact of Technologies and Communication Tools on human life
• Transhumanism
  • Enhancement, augmentation, transformation of human body by technological devices
• Philosophical inquiry on Technics
  • The Question of Technics: what is the technological paradigm?
  • Technophobia versus Techno-philia
• An ethical approach to Technics
  • The ethical inversion
  • Tools and aims

• Valentina Tirloni, Associate Professor in Information and Communication Sciences, Université Côte d'Azur / Field of expertise: Infocom, philosophy, anthropology, ethics

All the specific bibliography will be delivered on each chapter of the course on Moodle.

• David Kyle Johnson, Black Mirror and Philosophy, Wiley Blackwell, 2020.
• Coeckelbergh Mark, The Political Philosophy of AI, Polity Press, 2022.
• Delli Carpini Michael X., Digital Media and Democratic Futures, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2019.
• Pariser Eli, The Filter Bubble. What the Internet is Hiding from You, Penguin Books, London, 2011.
• Pickard Victor, Berman David Elliot, After net neutrality. A new Deal for the Digital Age, Yale University Press, New Haven et London, 2019.
• Steiglitz Kenneth, The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital, Princeton University Press, 2021.
• Zuboff Shoshana, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Profile Books, 2019.

Université Côte d'Azur's Library Resources

• Fall 2026
  • Written essay #1 - Submission deadline (on Moodle): 05/11/2026, before 22h00 - 50% of the final grade
  • Written essay #2 - Submission deadline (on Moodle): 03/12/2026, before 22h00 - 50% of the final grade