New Directions in Understanding Ethics and Technology

这项工作考察了科学和技术研究(STS)最近的工作对于理解伦理和技术之间的联系的影响。它融合了过去二十年来显著发展的两个研究领域的见解：技术的社会研究；以及与技术有关的应用伦理学和实践伦理学。STS技术理论揭示了技术与社会之间的密切联系，特别是技术的社会塑造，为理解伦理与技术之间的联系提供了丰富的基础。STS学者驳斥了技术只是出现然后产生社会影响的观点。他们现在倾向于更复杂的、技术和社会共同创造的模式。然而，许多伦理学家继续使用一种技术完好无损然后产生影响的模式，即威胁特定的社会价值观或引发伦理问题。当人们更好地理解技术和社会之间的无缝联系时，伦理和技术研究的许多新的和有前途的方向就会变得显而易见。该项目旨在制定、阐明、说明和传播伦理与技术之间联系的一个或多个理论帐户，该帐户纳入并建立在STS社会塑造/共同创造理论的基础上。该项目的主要任务将是引出STS理论对伦理的影响。三个方向将成为这一努力的起点。STS理论认为，技术不仅应该被理解为物质对象，而且应该被理解为物质对象以及社会制度、社会实践和人际关系。根据这一观点，道德和价值问题可能存在于技术生命周期的任何一个阶段，从设计、制造到营销和分销，再到采用和使用。其次，大量的STS文献阐述了物件设计中体现的价值，这对于理解道德价值存在于物件中的可能性具有巨大的影响。第三，理解伦理和技术之间的联系，使我们有可能更好地理解人类机构在技术中介活动中的作用，从而更好地理解人类对这种活动的责任。该项目本质上是哲学和理论的，而不是经验的。虽然要做的研究将利用技术的实证研究，但该项目的方法是概念性的、主题性的和分析性的。这位调查者是一位哲学家，他在STS和应用/实践伦理领域都有工作，特别是计算机技术中的伦理问题。两名博士后研究助理，一名具有STS背景的博士后和一名具有伦理学背景的博士后参与其中。每个人都将接受培训，以了解另一个领域，以便双方都可以帮助发展理论帐户和工作在一个单独的项目。

This endeavor examines the implications of recent work in Science and Technology Studies (STS) for understanding the connection between ethics and technology. It involves integration of insights from two fields of research that have significantly evolved in the last two decades: Social studies of technology; andApplied and practical ethics related to technology.STS theories of technology provide a rich foundation for understanding the connection between ethics and technology insofar as they reveal the intimate connections between technology and society, and especially the social shaping of technology. STS scholars have rejected the idea that technologies simply appear and then have social impacts. They now favor more complex, co-creation models of technology and society. However, many ethicists continue to use a model of technology arriving intact and then having impacts, i.e., threatening particular social values or raising ethical issues. When the seamless connection between technology and society is better understood, many new and promising directions for research on ethics and technology become apparent. This project aims to develop, articulate, illustrate, and disseminate a theoretical account (or accounts) of the connection between ethics and technology, an account that incorporates and builds on STS social shaping/co-creation theories. The major task of the project will be to draw out the implications of STS theory for ethics. Three directions will serve as starting places for this endeavor. STS theory suggests that technology should be understood to be not just material objects but material objects together with social institutions, social practices, and human relationships. In this view, ethical and value issues may be present at any point in the life cycle of a technology, from design, to manufacture, to marketing and distribution, to adoption and use. Second, a good deal of STS literature addresses the values embodied in the design of material objects and this has enormous implications for understanding the possibility of moral values being 'in' material objects. Third, understanding the connection between ethics and technology opens up the possibility of better understanding the role of human agency in technology-mediated activities and consequently the accountability of humans for such activities. The project is philosophical and theoretical in nature, not empirical. While the research to be done will draw on empirical studies of technology, the methodology of the project is conceptual, thematic, and analytical. The investigator is a philosopher who has worked both in STS and in the field of applied/ practical ethics, especially ethical issues in computer technology. Two post-doctoral research associates, one post-doc with a background in STS and one with a background in ethics are involved. Each will be trained to understand the other field so that both can assist in the development of the theoretical account and work on an individual project.