Engineering and the Problem of Moral Overload.

When thinking about ethics, technology is often only mentioned as the source of our problems, not as a potential solution to our moral dilemmas. When thinking about technology, ethics is often only mentioned as a constraint on developments, not as a source and spring of innovation. In this paper, we...

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Published in:Science & Engineering Ethics Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 143 - 156
Main Authors: Hoven, Jeroen, Lokhorst, Gert-Jan, Poel, Ibo
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Mar2012
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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          Hoven, Jeroen
          Lokhorst, Gert-Jan
          Poel, Ibo
        affil: Section of Philosophy, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft The Netherlands
      su:
        Ethics
        Technology
        Technological innovations
        Engineering
        Duty
      sug:
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          Ethics
          Technology
          Technological innovations
          Engineering
          Duty
      keyword:
        Moral overload
        Technological progress
      ab: When thinking about ethics, technology is often only mentioned as the source of our problems, not as a potential solution to our moral dilemmas. When thinking about technology, ethics is often only mentioned as a constraint on developments, not as a source and spring of innovation. In this paper, we argue that ethics can be the source of technological development rather than just a constraint and technological progress can create moral progress rather than just moral problems. We show this by an analysis of how technology can contribute to the solution of so-called moral overload or moral dilemmas. Such dilemmas typically create a moral residue that is the basis of a second-order principle that tells us to reshape the world so that we can meet all our moral obligations. We can do so, among other things, through guided technological innovation.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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