Standing on the Shoulders of Giants:
Exploring the Intersection of Philosophy and HCI

A CHI 2019 workshop held in Glasgow, UK—Saturday May 4th, 2019

Due to multiple requests, we have extended the deadline to February 19th (3:00PM EST).

Location Details:

Room: Gala 2
Venue Overview
Workshop Building Map: Scottish Event Campus (SEC) (See the far right-hand side of the map, “upper level of Armadillo”)

Call for Participation

Download the workshop proposal.

Philosophy has provided a vital perspective for HCI on how we navigate, experience, understand, and judge the world around us and its artifacts. Lately, HCI scholars have also sought to use philosophy’s program of answering what it means to live a “good” life to investigate the ethical and moral implications of the technologies we design. As philosophy in its many forms continues to open up new influences and our relations with technology broaden, we believe it is timely to have a meta-discussion about what links philosophy and HCI. As we understand it, philosophy’s strength lies in its diversity, depth, and interpretive flexibility.

The goal of this one-day workshop (Saturday May 4th, 2019) will be to sustain this thread by bringing together HCI scholars who have been drawn to philosophy to develop a shared agenda on how to understand it and carry it forward. Attendees will discuss their experiences with philosophically-informed research, epistemological and practical concerns when pairing philosophy with traditional HCI methods, and how philosophy can help us understand and design for users.

We invite interested researchers to submit a 2-4 page (excluding references) position paper in the CHI Extended Abstracts format that addresses the key topic(s) of the workshop. The paper should also include a short author biography that includes current research or potential goals of research.

Submissions (PDF format) should be sent to by February 12th 19th, 2019 (3:00PM EST) and will be reviewed based on relevancy to the workshop. At least one co-author of each accepted submission should attend the workshop.

Key goals and topics

  • Describing and reflecting on existing philosophically-informed HCI research.
  • Identifying emerging phenomena, issues, and challenges in HCI, addressing which would benefit from engaging with philosophy.
  • Considering how we can practically learn and “do” philosophy. For instance, how might we explicitly meld traditional HCI methodology stemming from disciplines like psychology with philosophy?
  • Asking what philosophy means for understanding stakeholders and for design of interactive systems.
  • Developing how can we make philosophy in HCI more accessible.
  • Outlining an agenda (or agendas) for philosophically informed HCI.

Important Dates

  • 12 February 2019 (3:00PM EST) 19 February 2019 (3:00PM EST): Deadline for workshop position paper submissions
  • 4 March 2019: Final workshop acceptances released
  • 4 May 2019: Workshop