• Around "Deconstruction." Author’s Response
    Studia Philosophiae Christianae 59 (2): 7-20. 2023.
    In this paper I reply to the four critical articles that were provided in response to my book Deconstruction (MIT Press 2021). It proceeds in four steps: (1) I begin with a reply to Stanisław Chankowski’s use of the psychoanalytic term “fetishistic denial” to describe the formal character of the text. (2) I then engage with the criticism supplied by Piotr Kozak, who questions deconstruction’s theory of truth (or its lack thereof). (3) From this, I take-up and respond to Przemysław Nowakowski’s p…Read more
  • Handbook of the Ethics of AI (edited book)
    Edward Elgar Publishing. forthcoming.
  •  18
    Duty Now and for the Future: Communication, Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
    Journal of Media Ethics 38 (4): 198-210. 2023.
    This essay examines whether and to what extent the “other” in communicative interactions may be otherwise than another human subject and the moral opportunities and challenges this alteration would make available to us. Toward this end, the analysis proceeds in five steps or movements. The first reviews the way the discipline of communication has typically perceived and theorized the role and function of technology. The second and third parts investigate the critical challenges that emerging tec…Read more
  •  131
    Large language models such as ChatGPT enable users to automatically produce text but also raise ethical concerns, for example about authorship and deception. This paper analyses and discusses some key philosophical assumptions in these debates, in particular assumptions about authorship and language and—our focus—the use of the appearance/reality distinction. We show that there are alternative views of what goes on with ChatGPT that do not rely on this distinction. For this purpose, we deploy th…Read more
  •  1554
    In a friendly interdisciplinary debate, we interrogate from several vantage points the question of “personhood” in light of contemporary and near-future forms of social AI. David J. Gunkel approaches the matter from a philosophical and legal standpoint, while Jordan Wales offers reflections theological and psychological. Attending to metaphysical, moral, social, and legal understandings of personhood, we ask about the position of apparently personal artificial intelligences in our society and in…Read more
  •  7
    Deconstruction. Critical Interventions for the 21st Century and Beyond
    Studia Philosophiae Christianae 58 (2): 89-108. 2022.
    This essay seeks to make a case for deconstruction as a kind of critical intervention for responding to and dealing with the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century and beyond. Toward this end, it proceeds in three steps or movements. (1) The first part will deconstruct deconstruction, deliberately employing what will be revealed as an inaccurate vernacular understanding of the term in order to extract a more precise and technical characterization of the concept. (2) The second part wil…Read more
  •  80
    Among the many forms of artistic expression that characterize the digital era, remix occupies a rather central position. At the same time, however, the success of remix as an artistic practice raises several hard questions. What is original and what is derived? How can we sort out and make sense of questions concerning origination and derivation in situations where one thing is appropriated, reused, and repurposed for something else? What theory of moral and aesthetic value can accommodate and e…Read more
  •  6
    Heidegger and the media
    Polity Press. 2014.
    The most significant philosopher of Being, Martin Heidegger has nevertheless largely been ignored within communications studies. This book sets the record straight by demonstrating the profound implications of his unique philosophical project for our understanding of today's mediascape. The full range of Heidegger's writing from Being and Time to his later essays is drawn upon.
  •  3
    A new theory of moral and aesthetic value for the age of remix, going beyond the usual debates over originality and appropriation. Remix—or the practice of recombining preexisting content—has proliferated across media both digital and analog. Fans celebrate it as a revolutionary new creative practice; critics characterize it as a lazy and cheap (and often illegal) recycling of other people's work. In Of Remixology, David Gunkel argues that to understand remix, we need to change the terms of the …Read more
  •  5
    The changing face of alterity: communication, technology, and other subjects (edited book)
    with Ciro Marcondes and Dieter Mersch
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2016.
    Addressing a challenge and opportunity that is definitive of life in the 21st century, this book provides a range of possible solutions that serve to motivate and structure future research and debate around the concept of 'the other' in communication.
  •  9
    Terra nova 2.0 -- The real problem -- Social contract 2.0 -- In the face of others -- Open-ended conclusions.
  •  5
    Žižek studies: the greatest hits (so far) (edited book)
    with Paul A. Taylor
    Peter Lang. 2019.
    Zizek Studies: The Greatest Hits (So Far) assembles and presents the best work published in the field of Zizek Studies over the last ten years, providing teachers, students, and researchers with a carefully curated volume of leading-edge scholarship addressing the unique and sometimes eclectic work of Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek. The chapters included in this collection have been rigorously tested in and culled from the (virtual) pages of the International Journal of Z…Read more
  •  2
    Deconstruction
    The MIT Press. 2021.
    A short, reader-friendly introduction to a complex philosophical topic. One that encompasses not just philosophical and literary topics but technological ones as well.
  •  15
  •  8
    In this short introduction, David J. Gunkel examines the shifting world of artificial intelligence, mapping it onto everyday twenty-first century life and probing the consequences of this ever-growing industry and movement. The book investigates the significance and consequences of the robot invasion in an effort to map the increasingly complicated social terrain of the twenty-first century. Whether we recognize it as such or not, we are in the midst of a robot invasion. What matters most in the…Read more
  •  101
    Moral Status and Intelligent Robots
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 60 (1): 88-117. 2021.
    The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 88-117, March 2022.
  •  15
    Shifting Perspectives
    Science and Engineering Ethics 26 (5): 2527-2532. 2020.
  •  42
    Slavoj Žižek’s new book [...] was written at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and quickly rushed into publication in an effort to provide the public with a philosophical engagement with the opportunities and challenges of the novel coronavirus and the social, political, and technological responses that have been marshalled to contend with the panic that has accompanied it.
  • The Face of Janus: Encyclopedia and the End of Philosophy
    Dissertation, Depaul University. 1996.
    The Face of Janus: Encyclopedia and the End of Philosophy investigates the encyclopedia projects instituted within the discipline of philosophy at the apex of the modern era. The dissertation considers the works of Diderot and D'Alembert, Kant, Hegel, and Bataille and Derrida. Like two-faced Janus, these encyclopedic endeavors are discovered to have a bifacial character. As such, they occupy a unique position on the boundary between philosophy and its other. The investigation endeavors to trace …Read more
  •  193
    One of the enduring concerns of moral philosophy is deciding who or what is deserving of ethical consideration. Much recent attention has been devoted to the "animal question" -- consideration of the moral status of nonhuman animals. In this book, David Gunkel takes up the "machine question": whether and to what extent intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making can be considered to have legitimate moral responsibilities and any legitimate claim to moral consideration. The machine ques…Read more
  •  5
    The Changing Face of Alterity: Communication, Technology and Other Subjects (edited book)
    with Ciro Marcondes Filho and Dieter Mersch
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2016.
    Addressing a challenge and opportunity that is definitive of life in the 21st century, this book provides a range of possible solutions that serve to motivate and structure future research and debate around the concept of 'the other' in communication.
  •  221
    The other question: can and should robots have rights?
    Ethics and Information Technology 20 (2): 87-99. 2018.
    This essay addresses the other side of the robot ethics debate, taking up and investigating the question “Can and should robots have rights?” The examination of this subject proceeds by way of three steps or movements. We begin by looking at and analyzing the form of the question itself. There is an important philosophical difference between the two modal verbs that organize the inquiry—can and should. This difference has considerable history behind it that influences what is asked about and how…Read more
  •  219
    Mind the gap: responsible robotics and the problem of responsibility
    Ethics and Information Technology 22 (4): 307-320. 2020.
    The task of this essay is to respond to the question concerning robots and responsibility—to answer for the way that we understand, debate, and decide who or what is able to answer for decisions and actions undertaken by increasingly interactive, autonomous, and sociable mechanisms. The analysis proceeds through three steps or movements. It begins by critically examining the instrumental theory of technology, which determines the way one typically deals with and responds to the question of respo…Read more
  •  3
    Scary Monsters
    International Studies in Philosophy 29 (2): 23-46. 1997.
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    Better Living Through Technology
    Foundations of Science 22 (2): 349-352. 2017.
    In this brief response to Mark Coeckelbergh’s contribution, I demonstrate how the author introduces an important shift in the way we approach technology. Instead of focusing on the new and often-times dramatic existential vulnerabilities supposedly introduced by technological innovation, Coeckelbergh targets the way technology already transforms our existential vulnerabilities. And I show how this shift in focus has three very important consequences: a different way to ask about and investigate …Read more
  •  26
    Virtually transcendent: Cyberculture and the body
    Journal of Mass Media Ethics 13 (2). 1998.
    T h i s article examines the ethical implications of the desirefor disembodiment situated in the texts and technologies of cyberspace. The article is divided into 2 parts. The first traces the conceptual history of dualism, demonstrating its exclusive cultural politics and investigating the socio-political consequences of encoding this metaphysical information in contemporary media technology. The second part examines the material conditions of new communication technology, arguing that the issu…Read more
  •  7
    ¿Por qué Žižek?... ¿Por qué online?
    International Journal of Žižek Studies 1 (1). 2007.
    Translation
  •  137
    Facing Animals: A Relational, Other-Oriented Approach to Moral Standing
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27 (5): 715-733. 2014.
    In this essay we reflect critically on how animal ethics, and in particular thinking about moral standing, is currently configured. Starting from the work of two influential “analytic” thinkers in this field, Peter Singer and Tom Regan, we examine some basic assumptions shared by these positions and demonstrate their conceptual failings—ones that have, despite efforts to the contrary, the general effect of marginalizing and excluding others. Inspired by the so-called “continental” philosophical …Read more