Sadjad Soltanzadeh
Sadjad Soltanzadeh is a researcher in ethics and philosophy of technology. Sadjad is working with the DILEMA project with the goal of understanding the legal, philosophical, and moral importance of human autonomy and human agency in the context of autonomous systems.
Sadjad has a multidisciplinary background and has experienced diverse workplace and academic environments in Iran, the Netherlands, and Australia. He has masters and Doctorate degrees in Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology. He is also a qualified and experienced mechanical engineer as well as a secondary school teacher.
Sadjad has developed a philosophy, named activity realism, for which he won the SPT2019 Early Career Award. In this philosophy, the study of objects and systems should be preceded by the study of activities of reflective beings, such as humans. Sadjad has recenntly published a manuscript where he outlines the details of his philosophy. The manuscript is entitled Problem-Solving Technologies: A User-Friendly Philosophy and is published by Rowman & Littlefield.
As an engineer, Sadjad has been involved in a number of projects, including designing and building robots at the ARAS robotic group, and collaborating in an interdisciplinary research group to investigate the dynamic behaviour of the human heart for fault diagnosis.
Sadjad has also worked as a secondary school teacher and contributed to education-related projects. He has jointly designed four curricula for philosophy courses at the college level with the Australian Capital Territory’s Board of Senior Secondary Studies.
Sadjad has been involved in other advisory roles and professional collaborations. Most noticeably, he has been collaborating with the Australian Institute of Sport, Netball Australia, and Athletics Australia since 2013. This ongoing collaboration has resulted in athletic excellence as well as in academic papers and seminars. At the centre of this work lie questions of performance evaluation, player selection, player autonomy, and understanding the structure of team performance.
Soltannzadeh, S. (2022). Problem-Solving Technologies: A User-Friendly Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield
Soltanzadeh, S., Mooney, M. (2021). “Autonomy in the Context of Decision-Making Dilemmas”. In C. Pereira Martins (ed.) Do Sporto/On Sports: theoria vs praxis, pp. 147-162. IEF Coimbra and fundação do desporto.
Soltanzadeh, S. (2021). “Strictly Human: Limitations of Autonomous Systems”. Minds and Machines. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-021-09582-7
Soltanzadeh S., Galliott J., Jevglevskaja N. (2020). “Customizable Ethics Settings for Building Resilience and Narrowing the Responsibility Gap: Case Studies in the Socio-Ethical Engineering of Autonomous Systems”. Science and Engineering Ethics. Vol. 26, no. 5; pp. 2693-2708
Weckert, J., Soltanzadeh, S. (2020). “Trust in Nanotechnology”. In J. Simon (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Trust and Philosophy, pp. 391-404. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Soltanzadeh, S. (2019). “A Practically Useful Metaphysics of Technology”. Techné. Vol. 23, no. 2; pp. 232-250.
Soltanzadeh, S., Mooney, M. (2018). “Players within a team: understanding the structure of team performance through individual functions and team objectives.” International Sport Coaching Journal. Vol. 5; pp. 84-49.
Mooney, M., Charlton, P., Soltanzadeh, S., Drew, M. (2017). “Who ‘owns’ the injury or illness? Who ‘owns’ performance? Applying systems thinking to integrate health and performance in elite sport.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096649.
Soltanzadeh, S. (2016). “Questioning two assumptions in the metaphysics of technological objects.” Philosophy & Technology. Vol. 29; pp. 127-135.
Weckert, J., Rodriguez Valdes, H., Soltanzadeh, S. (2016). “A Problem with Societal Desirability as a Component of Responsible Research and Innovation: the “If we don’t somebody else will” Argument.” NanoEthics. Vol. 10, no 2; pp. 215-225.
Soltanzadeh, S., Mooney, M. (2016). “Systems Thinking and Team Performance Analysis.” International Sport Coaching Journal. Vol. 3; pp. 184-191.
Soltanzadeh, S. (2015). “Humanist and Nonhumanist Aspects of Technologies as Problem Solving Physical Instruments.” Philosophy & Technology. Vol. 28, issue 1, pp. 139-156.
Soltanzadeh, S. (2012). “Peter-Paul Verbeek’s Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things”. NanoEthics. Vol. 6, issue 1, pp. 77-80.