University of Delaware remembers Emeritus Professor Paul Durbin (1933-2019)

Paul Durbin was an early advocate of interdisciplinary research and teaching before it gained the prominence it has today.  A pioneer in the field of the philosophy of technology, he collaborated with others in assembling the research in this new and distinctive discipline that has become neither traditional philosophy of science nor the history of industrial progress.  Paul edited and published several large volumes of work on the philosophy of technology, in a major enterprise supported by large research grants.  He knew how to foster the collaborative efforts of scholars at the University of Delaware and elsewhere (including Europe, and Germany in particular) to bring together insights spanning the gamut from the history of technology to the interpretation of technology's impact in works of literature.  Paul was a very active contributor to the intellectual life of the University, as well as to the State of Delaware and most especially to community, civic, and political affairs in Wilmington, where he resided.