2025
Rijssenbeek, Julia; Fraaije, Aafke
Investigating and imagining human-nature-technology relationships through dance Journal Article
In: Inscriptions, vol. 8, no. 1, 2025.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: art-humanities-science collaboration, dance based research, human-environment relationships, Moral imagination, posthumanism
@article{nokey,
title = {Investigating and imagining human-nature-technology relationships through dance},
author = {Julia Rijssenbeek and Aafke Fraaije},
url = {https://www.esdit.nl/wp-content/uploads/inscriptions.260.inscriptions8_1_Rijssenbeek-1.pdf},
doi = {doi.org/10.59391/fbbztk90},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-01-15},
urldate = {2025-01-15},
journal = {Inscriptions},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
abstract = {An increasingly popular response to Western thinking about human dominance over nature is posthumanism. Rather than addressing the challenges of anthropocentrism by focusing on yet another grand perspective in response to it, we propose that environmental philosophers engage in arts-based research to reflect on how to relate differently to non-human life and our environment. This article explores how arts-based research, particularly dance-based methods, can enhance environmental philosophers’ moral imagination in rethinking human-environment relations. It discusses the dance film Cobalt (2024) as a case study to explore how embodied movement can explore the human-environment relationship beyond verbal discourse, leading to expressive and imaginative responses. Screenings of Cobalt in academic settings engaged participants in discussions that revealed diverse interpretations, demonstrating the film’s potential to challenge dominant perspectives on human-environment relationships and to foster the moral imagination essential for addressing current environmental crises.},
keywords = {art-humanities-science collaboration, dance based research, human-environment relationships, Moral imagination, posthumanism},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
An increasingly popular response to Western thinking about human dominance over nature is posthumanism. Rather than addressing the challenges of anthropocentrism by focusing on yet another grand perspective in response to it, we propose that environmental philosophers engage in arts-based research to reflect on how to relate differently to non-human life and our environment. This article explores how arts-based research, particularly dance-based methods, can enhance environmental philosophers’ moral imagination in rethinking human-environment relations. It discusses the dance film Cobalt (2024) as a case study to explore how embodied movement can explore the human-environment relationship beyond verbal discourse, leading to expressive and imaginative responses. Screenings of Cobalt in academic settings engaged participants in discussions that revealed diverse interpretations, demonstrating the film’s potential to challenge dominant perspectives on human-environment relationships and to foster the moral imagination essential for addressing current environmental crises.
2024
van Grunsven, Janna; Marin, Lavinia; Gammon, Andrea; Franssen, Trijsje
4E cognition, moral imagination, and engineering ethics education: shaping affordances for diverse embodied perspectives Journal Article
In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2024, ISBN: 1572-8676.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Education, Ethical Education, Moral imagination
@article{vanGrunsven2024b,
title = {4E cognition, moral imagination, and engineering ethics education: shaping affordances for diverse embodied perspectives},
author = {Janna van Grunsven and Lavinia Marin and Andrea Gammon and Trijsje Franssen},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-024-09987-6https://www.esdit.nl/4e-cognition-moral-imagination-engineering-ethics-imagination/},
doi = {10.1007/s11097-024-09987-6},
isbn = {1572-8676},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-05-25},
urldate = {2024-05-25},
journal = {Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences},
abstract = {While 4E approaches to cognition are increasingly introduced in educational contexts, little has been said about how 4E commitments can inform pedagogy aimed at fostering ethical competencies. Here, we evaluate a 4E-inspired ethics exercise that we developed at a technical university to enliven the moral imagination of engineering students. Our students participated in an interactive tinkering workshop, during which they materially redesigned a healthcare artifact. The aim of the workshop was twofold. Firstly, we wanted students to experience how material choices at the levels of design and functionality can enable morally significant reimaginings of the affordances commonly associated with existing artifacts. We term this type of reimagining world-directed moral imagination. Secondly, through the design process, we wanted students to robustly place themselves in the lived embodied perspectives of (potential) users of their selected artifacts. We term this person-directed moral imagination. While student testimonies about the exercise indicate that both their world-directed and person-directed moral imagination were enlivened, we note that the fostering of robust person-directed moral imagination proved challenging. Using 4E insights, we diagnose this challenge and ask how it might be overcome. To this end, we engage extensively with a recent 4E-informed critique of person-directed moral imagination, raised by Clavel Vázquez and Clavel-Vázquez (2023). They argue that person-directed moral imagination is profoundly limited, if not fundamentally misguided, particularly when exercised in contexts marked by emphatic embodied situated difference between the imaginer and the imagined. Building upon insights from both the 4E field and testimonies from critical disability studies, we argue that, while their critique is valuable, it ultimately goes too far. We conclude that a 4E approach can take on board recent 4E warnings regarding the limits of person-directed moral imagination while contributing positively to the development of moral imagination in engineering ethics education.},
keywords = {Education, Ethical Education, Moral imagination},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
While 4E approaches to cognition are increasingly introduced in educational contexts, little has been said about how 4E commitments can inform pedagogy aimed at fostering ethical competencies. Here, we evaluate a 4E-inspired ethics exercise that we developed at a technical university to enliven the moral imagination of engineering students. Our students participated in an interactive tinkering workshop, during which they materially redesigned a healthcare artifact. The aim of the workshop was twofold. Firstly, we wanted students to experience how material choices at the levels of design and functionality can enable morally significant reimaginings of the affordances commonly associated with existing artifacts. We term this type of reimagining world-directed moral imagination. Secondly, through the design process, we wanted students to robustly place themselves in the lived embodied perspectives of (potential) users of their selected artifacts. We term this person-directed moral imagination. While student testimonies about the exercise indicate that both their world-directed and person-directed moral imagination were enlivened, we note that the fostering of robust person-directed moral imagination proved challenging. Using 4E insights, we diagnose this challenge and ask how it might be overcome. To this end, we engage extensively with a recent 4E-informed critique of person-directed moral imagination, raised by Clavel Vázquez and Clavel-Vázquez (2023). They argue that person-directed moral imagination is profoundly limited, if not fundamentally misguided, particularly when exercised in contexts marked by emphatic embodied situated difference between the imaginer and the imagined. Building upon insights from both the 4E field and testimonies from critical disability studies, we argue that, while their critique is valuable, it ultimately goes too far. We conclude that a 4E approach can take on board recent 4E warnings regarding the limits of person-directed moral imagination while contributing positively to the development of moral imagination in engineering ethics education.