Abstract
This paper critiques dominant design pedagogies for their alignment with positivist and modernist paradigms, which limit design’s capacity for serious philosophical inquiry. It argues that Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) pedagogy offers an alternative philosophy, functioning as a powerful method for fomenting critical engagement by enabling students to materialize abstract concepts. Drawing on a case study from an undergraduate course on human-robot-cyborg relations, the paper employs the metaphor of 'portals' to analyse three thematic case studies. Each portal opens onto a distinct philosophical debate: the nature of reality and the self, the biopolitics of the body, and the networked subject. The analysis of student work and reflections indicates how the pedagogical framework enabled students to independently enter into dialogue with these complex themes. The paper concludes by presenting a model for 'portal-making,' positioning design education as a critical practice for exploring the ethical and ontological dimensions of a posthuman condition.
Keywords
Design Philosophy, Speculative Design Pedagogy, Posthumanism, Ontological Design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1505
Citation
Araujo de Aguiar, C.H. (2026) Opening portals to the posthuman: A pedagogical framework for materializing philosophy, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1505
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Opening portals to the posthuman: A pedagogical framework for materializing philosophy
This paper critiques dominant design pedagogies for their alignment with positivist and modernist paradigms, which limit design’s capacity for serious philosophical inquiry. It argues that Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) pedagogy offers an alternative philosophy, functioning as a powerful method for fomenting critical engagement by enabling students to materialize abstract concepts. Drawing on a case study from an undergraduate course on human-robot-cyborg relations, the paper employs the metaphor of 'portals' to analyse three thematic case studies. Each portal opens onto a distinct philosophical debate: the nature of reality and the self, the biopolitics of the body, and the networked subject. The analysis of student work and reflections indicates how the pedagogical framework enabled students to independently enter into dialogue with these complex themes. The paper concludes by presenting a model for 'portal-making,' positioning design education as a critical practice for exploring the ethical and ontological dimensions of a posthuman condition.