A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Chapter 64

Technology and Ethics: Overview

CARL MITCHAM AND KATINKA WAELBERS

Since the mid-twentieth century, technological change has increasingly led to public debate. Concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of nuclear deterrence, dangers of environmental pollution, informed consent in medicine, privacy and computing, the safety and desirability of genetic engineering, intellectual techno-property rights, and nanotechnological risks. Given the large and increasing number of these moral discussions, one could anticipate that any companion to the philosophy of technology would include analyses of a diversity of ethical issues. The twenty-three chapters included here, covering topics from agricultural ethics to water technology, confirm such expectation. New technologies, now affecting and affected by all aspects of the human lifeworld, open up and have become manifold opportunities for philosophical negotiation and critical reflection.

In the regionalized field of technology and ethics discussions, there are two distinct types of interactions. One focuses on the ethics of technical professionals, that is, the specialized ethical codes appropriate to physicians, engineers, computer scientists and the like. Critical reflection on how technological change influences such codes of conduct has become an increasingly prominent aspect of the ethics of technical professionals. Another focuses on how best to extend ethics in general from its traditional focus on human–human interactions ...