Søraker, J.H. (Johnny)
Research profile
I am assistant Professor of Philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente. I did my PhD at the same department, supervised by Prof. Dr. Philip Brey and defended on April 23, 2010 “met lof” (Dutch equivalent to summa cum laude). The dissertation mainly dealt with the epistemology, ontology and ethics of virtual worlds, with a particular focus on their potential impact on personal well-being.The remainder of my 4-year (NWO VICI) PhD Research Grant was converted into a short PostDoc, and I subsequently got the position as assistant professor starting September 1, 2010. Building on a Cand. Mag. (B.A. equiv.) consisting of psychology, philosophy and comparative literature, I did my Cand. Philol. (M.A. equiv.) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, on issues related to Philosophy of Mind and Artificial Intelligence.
Although I am inspired by all kinds of philosophy, my main research interests lie in the intersections between Information Technology, on the one hand, and both theoretical and practical philosophy, on the other. I often ground my work in psychological research, especially work in the field of Positive Psychology. I have published and lectured extensively on issues such as the ethical, societal and psychological effects of technology (especially related to the notion of well-being), Internet governance and the moral status of information.
3TU.Ethics Projects
Scientific publications (selection)
Søraker, Johnny H. 2010. The Neglect of Reason – A Plea for Rationalist Accounts of the Effects of Virtual Violence. In C. Wankel and S. Malleck, eds., Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 15-32.available online
Brey, Philip and Søraker, Johnny H. 2009. Philosophy of Computing and Information Technology. In A. Meijers, ed., Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences. Vol IX in D. Gabbay, P. Thagard and J. Woods, eds., Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 1341-1408.available online
Soraker, J.H. 2008. Global Freedom of Expression within Non-textual Frameworks. Information society 24 (1):40-46.available online
Søraker, Johnny H. and Brey, Philip. 2007. “Ambient Intelligence and Problems with Inferring Desires from Behaviour”, International Review of Information Ethics, 8(1):7-12.available online
Søraker, Johnny H. 2007. “Real norms, Virtual Cases: A Rationalist, Casuistic Account of Virtual Rape”. In Hinman, L., Brey, P., Floridi, L., Grodzinsky, F. and Introna, L. (eds.), Proceedings of CEPE 2007 – The 7th International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry. Center for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT): Enschede, pp. 340-347. 
Søraker, Johnny H. 2007. The Moral Status of Information and Information Technologies – a relational theory of moral status. In S. Hongladarom and C. Ess (Eds.), Information Technology Ethics: Cultural Perspectives, Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, pp. 1-19.available online
Søraker, Johnny H. 2006. “The Role of Pragmatic Arguments in Computer Ethics”. Ethics and Information Technology, 8(3):121-130available online
Teaching
Supervision, MA students in Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (PSTS)
Graduate course on Computer Ethics (MSc, Comp. Sci./HMI, UT)
Introduction to Philosophy (MSc, PSTS, UT)
Introduction to Philosophical Methods (MSc, PSTS, UT)
Ethics and Technology I (MSc, PSTS, UT)
Ethics and Technology II (MSc, PSTS, UT)
Professional ethics for psychology (BSc, Psychology, UT)
Philosophy of Psychology (BSc, Psychology, UT)
History of Psychology (BSc, Psychology, UT)
