Chapter 16 - Artifacts' Morality

common sense view

technological artifacts are morally inert

strong view

technological artifacts possess moral properties themselves

Langdon Winner

artifacts, being intentionally designed for a specific purpose, thus literally embody the designer’s moral and political values

Objection to Langdon Winner

Social structures change but this doesn’t change concrete and steel. Why would the values remain if discrimination is no longer created by the artifact?

technological mediation

technological artifacts sit in the middle on the path between a person and their perception of the world, altering it

Latour’s Actor-Network Theory

an artifact and its designer and user together become one actant that performs the actions that involve the 3

Heidegger’s Technology as a way of Revealing

technological artifacts reveals to us the new possibilities that were previously unavailable, but this is bad because then humans view everything as reserves to be used

Illies and Meijers

Similar to Heidegger but in an optimistic way, that more options are always better

First Order Responsibility

Everyone has responsibility to choose the morally right option from all that is available

Second Order Responsibility

Engineers have a special responsibility in indirectly deciding what options become available for users