The Moral Status Of Technical Artefacts

Author : Peter Kroes,Peter-Paul Verbeek
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2014-01-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789400779143

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The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts by Peter Kroes,Peter-Paul Verbeek Pdf

This book considers the question: to what extent does it make sense to qualify technical artefacts as moral entities? The authors’ contributions trace recent proposals and topics including instrumental and non-instrumental values of artefacts, agency and artefactual agency, values in and around technologies, and the moral significance of technology. The editors’ introduction explains that as ‘agents’ rather than simply passive instruments, technical artefacts may actively influence their users, changing the way they perceive the world, the way they act in the world and the way they interact with each other. This volume features the work of various experts from around the world, representing a variety of positions on the topic. Contributions explore the contested discourse on agency in humans and artefacts, defend the Value Neutrality Thesis by arguing that technological artefacts do not contain, have or exhibit values, or argue that moral agency involves both human and non-human elements. The book also investigates technological fields that are subject to negative moral valuations due to the harmful effects of some of their products. It includes an analysis of some difficulties arising in Artificial Intelligence and an exploration of values in Chemistry and in Engineering. The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts is an advanced exploration of the various dimensions of the relations between technology and morality

Author : Pieter E. Vermaas
Publisher : Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Page : 135 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781608455980

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A Philosophy of Technology by Pieter E. Vermaas Pdf

In A Philosophy of Technology: From Technical Artefacts to Sociotechnical Systems, technology is analysed from a series of different perspectives. The analysis starts by focussing on the most tangible products of technology, called technical artefacts, and then builds step-wise towards considering those artefacts within their context of use, and ultimately as embedded in encompassing sociotechnical systems that also include humans as operators and social rules like legislation. Philosophical characterisations are given of technical artefacts, their context of use and of sociotechnical systems. Analyses are presented of how technical artefacts are designed in engineering and what types of technological knowledge is involved in engineering. And the issue is considered how engineers and others can or cannot influence the development of technology. These characterisations are complemented by ethical analyses of the moral status of technical artefacts and the possibilities and impossibilities for engineers to influence this status when designing artefacts and the sociotechnical systems in which artefacts are embedded. The running example in the book is aviation, where aeroplanes are examples of technical artefacts and the world aviation system is an example of a sociotechnical system. Issues related to the design of quiet aeroplane engines and the causes of aviation accidents are analysed for illustrating the moral status of designing, and the role of engineers therein. Table of Contents: Technical Artefacts / Technical Designing / Ethics and Designing / Technological Knowledge / Sociotechnical Systems / The Role of Social Factors in Technological Development / Ethics and Unintended Consequences of Technology

Author : Peter Vermaas,Peter Kroes,Ibo van de Poel,Maarten Franssen,Wybo Houkes
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 126 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-31
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9783031799716

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A Philosophy of Technology by Peter Vermaas,Peter Kroes,Ibo van de Poel,Maarten Franssen,Wybo Houkes Pdf

In A Philosophy of Technology: From Technical Artefacts to Sociotechnical Systems, technology is analysed from a series of different perspectives. The analysis starts by focussing on the most tangible products of technology, called technical artefacts, and then builds step-wise towards considering those artefacts within their context of use, and ultimately as embedded in encompassing sociotechnical systems that also include humans as operators and social rules like legislation. Philosophical characterisations are given of technical artefacts, their context of use and of sociotechnical systems. Analyses are presented of how technical artefacts are designed in engineering and what types of technological knowledge is involved in engineering. And the issue is considered how engineers and others can or cannot influence the development of technology. These characterisations are complemented by ethical analyses of the moral status of technical artefacts and the possibilities and impossibilities for engineers to influence this status when designing artefacts and the sociotechnical systems in which artefacts are embedded. The running example in the book is aviation, where aeroplanes are examples of technical artefacts and the world aviation system is an example of a sociotechnical system. Issues related to the design of quiet aeroplane engines and the causes of aviation accidents are analysed for illustrating the moral status of designing, and the role of engineers therein. Table of Contents: Technical Artefacts / Technical Designing / Ethics and Designing / Technological Knowledge / Sociotechnical Systems / The Role of Social Factors in Technological Development / Ethics and Unintended Consequences of Technology

Author : Peter Kroes
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2012-05-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789400739406

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Technical Artefacts: Creations of Mind and Matter by Peter Kroes Pdf

This book presents an attempt to understand the nature of technical artefacts and the way they come into being. Its primary focus is the kind of technical artefacts designed and produced by modern engineering. In spite of their pervasive influence on human thinking and doing, and therefore on the modern human condition, a philosophical analysis of technical artefacts and engineering design is lacking. Among the questions addressed are: How do technical artefacts fit into the furniture of the universe? In what sense are they different from objects from the natural world, or from the social world? What kind of activity is engineering design and what does it mean to say that technical artefacts are the embodiment of a design? Does it make sense to consider technical artefacts to be morally good or bad by themselves because of the way they influence human life? The book advances the thesis that technical artefacts, conceived of as physical constructions with a technical function, have a dual nature; they are hybrid objects combining physical and intentional features. It proposes a theory of technical functions and technical artefact kinds that does justice to this dual nature, analyses engineering design from the dual nature point of view, and argues that technical artefacts, because of their dual nature, have inherent moral significance.

Author : Pieter E. Vermaas,P.A. Kroes,Andrew Light,Steven Moore
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2007-12-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781402065910

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Philosophy and Design by Pieter E. Vermaas,P.A. Kroes,Andrew Light,Steven Moore Pdf

This volume provides the reader with an integrated overview of state-of-the-art research in philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture. It contains twenty-five essays that focus on engineering designing in its traditional sense, on designing in novel engineering domains, and on architectural and environmental designing. This volume enables the reader to overcome the traditional separation between engineering designing and architectural designing.

Author : Peter-Paul Verbeek
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2010-11-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0271046562

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What Things Do by Peter-Paul Verbeek Pdf

How are all these things affecting us? How can their role in our lives be understood? What Things Do answers these questions by focusing on how technologies mediate our actions and our perceptions of the world.

Author : Luciano Floridi
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2010-04-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781139487528

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The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics by Luciano Floridi Pdf

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have profoundly changed many aspects of life, including the nature of entertainment, work, communication, education, healthcare, industrial production and business, social relations and conflicts. They have had a radical and widespread impact on our moral lives and hence on contemporary ethical debates. The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, first published in 2010, provides an ambitious and authoritative introduction to the field, with discussions of a range of topics including privacy, ownership, freedom of speech, responsibility, technological determinism, the digital divide, cyber warfare, and online pornography. It offers an accessible and thoughtful survey of the transformations brought about by ICTs and their implications for the future of human life and society, for the evaluation of behaviour, and for the evolution of moral values and rights. It will be a valuable book for all who are interested in the ethical aspects of the information society in which we live.

Author : Andrew Wells Garnar,Ashley Shew
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781498597630

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Feedback Loops by Andrew Wells Garnar,Ashley Shew Pdf

In a world of information technologies, genetic engineering, controversies about established science, and the mysteries of quantum physics, it is at once seemingly impossible and absolutely vital to find ways to make sense of how science, technology, and society connect. In Feedback Loops: Pragmatism about Science & Technology, editors Andrew Wells Garnar and Ashley Shew bring together original writing from philosophers and science and technology studies scholars to provide novel ways of rethinking the relationships among science, technology, education, and society. Through critiquing and exploring the work of philosopher of science and technology Joseph C. Pitt, the authors featured in this volume investigate the complexities of contemporary technoscience, writing on topics ranging from super-computing to pedagogy, engineering to biotechnology patents, and scientific instruments to disability studies. Taken together, these chapters develop an argument about the necessity of using pragmatism to foster a more productive relationship among science, technology and society.

Author : Anne Gerdes,Mark Coeckelbergh,David Gunkel
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2022-07-07
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9782889765379

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Should Robots Have Standing? The Moral and Legal Status of Social Robots by Anne Gerdes,Mark Coeckelbergh,David Gunkel Pdf

Author : David J. Gunkel
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2024-03-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780262551571

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Robot Rights by David J. Gunkel Pdf

A provocative attempt to think about what was previously considered unthinkable: a serious philosophical case for the rights of robots. We are in the midst of a robot invasion, as devices of different configurations and capabilities slowly but surely come to take up increasingly important positions in everyday social reality—self-driving vehicles, recommendation algorithms, machine learning decision making systems, and social robots of various forms and functions. Although considerable attention has already been devoted to the subject of robots and responsibility, the question concerning the social status of these artifacts has been largely overlooked. In this book, David Gunkel offers a provocative attempt to think about what has been previously regarded as unthinkable: whether and to what extent robots and other technological artifacts of our own making can and should have any claim to moral and legal standing. In his analysis, Gunkel invokes the philosophical distinction (developed by David Hume) between “is” and “ought” in order to evaluate and analyze the different arguments regarding the question of robot rights. In the course of his examination, Gunkel finds that none of the existing positions or proposals hold up under scrutiny. In response to this, he then offers an innovative alternative proposal that effectively flips the script on the is/ought problem by introducing another, altogether different way to conceptualize the social situation of robots and the opportunities and challenges they present to existing moral and legal systems.

Author : Shannon Vallor
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 697 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2022
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190851187

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The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology by Shannon Vallor Pdf

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology gives readers a view into this increasingly vital and urgently needed domain of philosophical understanding, offering an in-depth collection of leading and emerging voices in the philosophy of technology. The thirty-two contributions in this volume cut across and connect diverse philosophical traditions and methodologies. They reveal the often-neglected importance of technology for virtually every subfield of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and political theory. The Handbook also gives readers a new sense of what philosophy looks like when fully engaged with the disciplines and domains of knowledge that continue to transform the material and practical features and affordances of our world, including engineering, arts and design, computing, and the physical and social sciences. The chapters reveal enduring conceptual themes concerning technology's role in the shaping of human knowledge, identity, power, values, and freedom, while bringing a philosophical lens to the profound transformations of our existence brought by innovations ranging from biotechnology and nuclear engineering to artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics. This new collection challenges the reader with provocative and original insights on the history, concepts, problems, and questions to be brought to bear upon humanity's complex and evolving relationship to technology.

Author : Luca Valera,Juan Carlos Castilla
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2019-11-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030294434

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Global Changes by Luca Valera,Juan Carlos Castilla Pdf

This book offers an authoritative analysis of the challenges that have arisen as a result of modern technologies. It covers several environmental problems, such as climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, loss of natural habitats, pollution and human population growth, and discusses practical scenarios for sustainable human dwelling of our planet. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the first part introduces “global changes”, describing how they are happening in reality, and the challenges arising from them. The second part introduces methodological approaches borrowed from various disciplines, such as engineering, management science, philosophy and theology, which can help deal with the contemporary challenges resulting from global changes. Lastly, the third part discusses some of the themes presented in the light of novel concepts, such as the Anthropocene, and includes interesting proposals and ideas about how human beings could dwell the Earth in this new age. Offering a comprehensive theoretical reflection on the relation between technology, environment and human beings, it also provides a practice-oriented guide for researchers and decision-makers working on a new ethical paradigm of acting in the Anthropocene.

Author : Glen Miller,Helena Mateus Jerónimo,Qin Zhu
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 583 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Technology
ISBN : 9781538176528

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Thinking Through Science and Technology by Glen Miller,Helena Mateus Jerónimo,Qin Zhu Pdf

"This edited volume transcends technological optimism and disciplinary captivity to develop a critical, broad, and diverse understanding of how science, technology, and engineering have transformed human experiences, practices, and values, with an emphasis on ethics, religion, and policy"--

Author : Amana Raquib
Publisher : The Other Press
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2015-04-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789839541939

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Islamic Ethics of Technology by Amana Raquib Pdf

This book approaches the question of technology from an Islamic ethical perspective. The book tries to broaden the scope of the Sharia to deal comprehensively with the ethical questions and dilemmas that arise in the midst of a postmodern technological culture due to the absence of well-defined religious-ethical ends. It looks at the maqasid as a universal ethical theory to be interpreted and applied in the global technological context. It weaves the contemporary philosophical analysis of technology within the maqasid discourse and assesses modern technology through the lens of the ultimate aims and purposes of the Sharia. It works out the relationship between the various objectives and how they can be developed into an Islamic ethics of technology. Following in the recent interest in the objectives of the Sharia, the book further expands the scope of the maqasid and carries it further to encompass metaphysical and ethical debates surrounding technology. Anyone interested in finding alternatives to the existing technological model will find this book valuable. Specifically those interested in Islam and Modern World and how ijtihad is being undertaken to tackle contemporary ethical problems will find this book helpful.

Author : Aimee van Wynsberghe
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2016-03-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317123163

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Healthcare Robots by Aimee van Wynsberghe Pdf

This study deals with an underexplored area of the emerging technologies debate: robotics in the healthcare setting. The author explores the role of care and develops a value-sensitive ethical framework for the eventual employment of care robots. Highlighting the range of positive and negative aspects associated with the initiative to design and use care robots, it draws out essential content as a guide to future design both reinforcing this study’s contemporary relevance, and giving weight to its prescriptions. The book speaks to, and is meant to be read by, a range of disciplines from science and engineering to philosophers and ethicists.