Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A Philosophy of TechnologyEthics and Designing

A Philosophy of Technology: Ethics and Designing [In the previous chapters, we discussed what technical artefacts are and how we can best understand the technical design process. We learned that technology is directed at changing the world and that engineers contribute to that by designing artefacts. The changes brought about by technology can be both for the good and for the bad. In this chapter, we shall therefore consider some of the ethical questions related to technical artefacts and designing. Ethics has to do with good and bad and right and wrong behaviour. Ethics is about how the world should be and not about how it actually is. Given that engineers are concerned with changing the world when they design technical artefacts, one might say that they are doing ethics. An important question about ethics in engineering is then: how can and should engineers change the world for the better by the designing of artefacts? The emphasis in this chapter lies on how engineers can deal with ethical questions during the design process. The relevant analysis takes as point of departure, the idea worked out in the previous two chapters that engineers not only design artefacts but also use plans. In this chapter, we shall presume that engineers are reasonably able to anticipate the impact their designs will have on society; in Chapter 7, we shall consider situations where that is not the case, in other words, where we are confronted with the unintended consequences of technology.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Philosophy of TechnologyEthics and Designing

Download PDF
14 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/a-philosophy-of-technology-ethics-and-designing-kc8tgGYVWN
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2011
ISBN
978-3-031-79969-3
Pages
39 –53
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-79971-6_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In the previous chapters, we discussed what technical artefacts are and how we can best understand the technical design process. We learned that technology is directed at changing the world and that engineers contribute to that by designing artefacts. The changes brought about by technology can be both for the good and for the bad. In this chapter, we shall therefore consider some of the ethical questions related to technical artefacts and designing. Ethics has to do with good and bad and right and wrong behaviour. Ethics is about how the world should be and not about how it actually is. Given that engineers are concerned with changing the world when they design technical artefacts, one might say that they are doing ethics. An important question about ethics in engineering is then: how can and should engineers change the world for the better by the designing of artefacts? The emphasis in this chapter lies on how engineers can deal with ethical questions during the design process. The relevant analysis takes as point of departure, the idea worked out in the previous two chapters that engineers not only design artefacts but also use plans. In this chapter, we shall presume that engineers are reasonably able to anticipate the impact their designs will have on society; in Chapter 7, we shall consider situations where that is not the case, in other words, where we are confronted with the unintended consequences of technology.]

Published: Jan 1, 2011

There are no references for this article.