Presentation at the SPT 2025 conference

This June, Fernando Secomandi gave a talk titled “The Technical Artifact Mediating Between Hegel and Ihde” at the Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference 2025, held at Eindhoven University of Technology. In his presentation, he explored how postphenomenology’s concept of technology-mediated intentionality, developed by Don Ihde, can be enriched through incorporation of G.W.F. Hegel’s concept of mutual recognition.

In this presentation, I expand postphenomenology’s concept of technology-mediated intentionality, pioneered by Don Ihde, by engaging with G.W.F. Hegel’s concept of mutual recognition. Hegel’s social and political philosophy has gained increasing interest in the contemporary philosophy of technology, particularly for examining human relations with artificial intelligence and other automated technologies. Postphenomenology, in turn, is a well-established post-Heideggerian perspective that emphasizes the non-neutral agency of human- made artifacts in shaping experiences of the world and the self.

I demonstrate how both Ihde and Hegel are concerned with how “otherness” mediates humans’ subjective experiences. But while Ihde focuses on the non-human other (i.e., technical artifact), Hegel highlights the human other (i.e., self-consciousness).

For Ihde, my analysis centers on his interpretation of the Husserlian concept of intentionality and development of a variational methodology to analyze multistable visual phenomena in Experimental Phenomenology (1986). These contributions laid the groundwork for his later phenomenological descriptions of the mediating role of technical artifacts in Technics and Praxis (1979), Technology and the Lifeworld (1990), and other works. For Hegel, I focus on his accounts of mutual recognition in the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) and other posthumously published writings, with particular attention to the passage commonly known as the “master-slave” (or lord-bondsman) dialectic. Contrary to dominant interpretations of this passage, I argue that Hegel develops an early account of technology-mediated recognition through the slave’s activity of self-objectification (i.e., work) under coercion from the master. According to this original interpretation, self-consciousness ultimately evolves through the mediation of an opposing self-consciousness, but this experience is indispensably shaped by the jointly formed technical object.

I conclude my talk by addressing past critiques of postphenomenological research,particularly its alleged inadequacy in engaging with the political and historical dimensions of human-technology relations. I argue that many of these critiques stem from the absence of an intersubjective foundation for examining the interplay between human intentionality and technological mediation. Efforts to establish such a foundation are currently being pursued by various researchers and perspectives. A Hegelian perspective on recognition could contribute to this endeavor by elucidating how human subjectivity is transformed through technologically mediated encounters with other humans.

Interested in research collaboration on similar topics? Contact Fernando Secomandi, Director of Justice by Design Lab.