How Do Technological Artefacts Embody Moral Values?

Journal article (2020)

Authors

M.B.O.T. Klenk

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00401-y

Artefacts Ethics of technology Moral value Response-dependence Value embedding

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5462a45d-2b99-48e8-a720-2052d3113658

More Info

expand_more

Published Date

2020

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

According to some philosophers of technology, technology embodies moral values in virtue of its functional properties and the intentions of its designers. But this paper shows that such an account makes the values supposedly embedded in technology epistemically opaque and that it does not allow for values to change. Therefore, to overcome these shortcomings, the paper introduces the novel Affordance Account of Value Embedding as a superior alternative. Accordingly, artefacts bear affordances, that is, artefacts make certain actions likelier given the circumstances. Based on an interdisciplinary perspective that invokes recent moral anthropology, I conceptualize affordances as response-dependent properties. That is, they depend on intrinsic as well as extrinsic properties of the artefact. We have reason to value these properties. Therefore, artefacts embody values and are not value-neutral, which has practical implications for the design of new technologies.

Files

Klenk2020_Article_HowDoTechnol... (.pdf)

(.pdf | 0.47 Mb)