Projects per year
Personal profile
Quote
“My research focuses on trust, agency, and human reliance, particularly in the context of technology. We rely on and through technology in most of our pursuits — but when do we have reason to trust it?”
Research profile
Philip Nickel specializes on philosophical aspects of our reliance on others, including trust, consent, and testimonial belief. Much of his research is in the domain of biomedical ethics, focusing on issues of consent and the mediation of care through technology and data.
Data collection and analysis promises to transform the practice of medicine and improve health. How can we introduce this transformation in a way that also promotes other values besides health, such as fairness, and the human need for knowledge and understanding? How do we have to re-think traditional values in biomedical ethics such as trust and consent, in view of these changes? Current teaching topics related to this research program include risk and safety, as well as the ethics of technology.
Academic background
Nickel received his doctorate in 2002 from the University of California, Los Angeles. From 2003 to 2008 he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many articles on trust, epistemic agency, and the ethics of biomedical research and a regular guest speaker. Philip has spoken on invitation of University of Oxford, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport, the Oxford Internet Institute, VU Amsterdam and elsewhere.
In 2017, he began a multi-year interdisciplinary project in which the values of trust and consent are reconsidered in the context of mobile health care. This project, entitled ‘Mobile Support Systems for Behavior Change’, examines network-based telecare systems (technologies and services that deliver health care to patients via software in the form of knowledge, coaching, persuasion, and self-monitoring). This was preceded by a project on trust in web-based telecare systems which ran in 2013-2014.
Affiliated with
- Data Science Center Eindhoven 4TU Centre for Ethics and Technology Society for Philosophy and Technology American Philosophical Association
Partners in (semi-)industry
- Philips
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Network
-
ESDiT: Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies (ESDiT)
Müller, V. C., Löhr, G., van der Puil, R., Sullivan, E., Spahn, A., Frank, L. E., Bombaerts, G., Nickel, P. J., O'Neill, E., Royakkers, L. M. M., IJsselsteijn, W. A., Hummel, P., Dennis, M. J., IJsselsteijn, W. A. & Dennis, M. J.
1/01/19 → 31/12/23
Project: Research direct
-
Mobile Support Systems for Behavior Change
Meijers, A. W. M., Loosman, I., Nickel, P. J. & Frank, L. E.
21/06/17 → 31/08/23
Project: Research direct
-
-
Trust in medical artificial intelligence: a discretionary account
Nickel, P. J., Mar 2022, In: Ethics and Information Technology. 24, 10 p., 7.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open AccessFile28 Downloads (Pure) -
Moral uncertainty in technomoral change: Bridging the Expl anatory Gap
Nickel, P. J., Kudina, O. & van de Poel, I., 2 Apr 2022, In: Perspectives on Science. 30, 2, p. 260-283 24 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open AccessFile8 Citations (Scopus)39 Downloads (Pure) -
Disruptive Innovation and Moral Uncertainty
Nickel, P. J., Dec 2020, In: NanoEthics. 14, 3, p. 259-269 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open AccessFile13 Citations (Scopus)63 Downloads (Pure) -
Trust in medicine
Nickel, P. J. & Frank, L. E., 12 Jun 2020, Routledge Handbook of Trust and Philosophy. Simon, J. (ed.). Taylor and Francis Ltd., p. 367-377 11 p. (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
5 Citations (Scopus) -
The Ethics of Uncertainty for Data Subjects
Nickel, P. J., 2019, The Ethics of Medical Data Donation. Krutzinna, J. & Floridi, L. (eds.). Cham: Springer, p. 55-74 20 p. (Philosophical Studies Series; vol. 137).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
Open AccessFile4 Citations (Scopus)65 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
-
Virtuous Risk. Is Virtue Ethics Fit for the Future? IFILNOVA, Lisbon, Portugal
Philip J. Nickel (Speaker)
7 Oct 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Contributed talk › Scientific
-
Morally disruptive innovation: when is it harmful? 16th World Congress of Bioethics, University of Basel
Philip J. Nickel (Speaker)
20 Jul 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
-
Invited Talk: Trusting AI systems under opacity, Workshop on non-transparent models and ethical uncertainty in science, technology, and engineering, High-Performance Computing Center, University of Stuttgart
Philip J. Nickel (Speaker)
7 Jul 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
-
Invited Talk: Morally Disruptive Technologies in Medicine, SUMMA Symposium UMC Utrecht
Philip J. Nickel (Speaker)
21 Jun 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
-
Invited talk: Trust, discretion, and AI, CAIDA, University of British Columbia
Philip J. Nickel (Speaker)
27 Oct 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
Courses
Press / Media
-
How can society prepare for the moral norms of tomorrow?
11/08/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
-
AI vraagt om debat
Philip J. Nickel & Tijn Borghuis
1/11/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
-
18 pessimistic opinions on the next 10 years of fake news (and 5 ...
20/10/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-
18 pessimistic opinions on the next 10 years of fake news (and 5 optimistic ones)
19/10/17 → 20/10/17
3 items of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-