Technoethics

Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. It draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society. Technoethics (TE) views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical use of technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Typically, scholars in Technoethics have a tendency to conceptualize technology and ethics as interconnected and embedded in life and society.

Definitions

Technoethics (TE) has been defined in a variety of ways over the last decade which highlight different aspects of this emerging field. Galvan (2001) defined Technoethics as the “sum total of ideas that bring into evidence a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a ‘finalized’ perfection of man.” Bao and Xiang (2006) described Technoethics as the behavioral norm and ethical basis for the global community. The Handbook of Research on Technoethics defined Technoethics as “an interdisciplinary field concerned with all ethical aspects of technology within a society shaped by technology. It deals with human processes and practices connected to technology which are embedded within social, political, and moral spheres of life” (Luppicini, 2008).

History of Technoethics

Technoethics is a rapidly expanding research area that evolved during the 1970s and 1980s from the confluence of a variety of disciplines and disciplinary subfields which viewed science and technology as socially embedded enterprises. It developed as a grounding framework for a rapidly emerging body of scholarship dealing with the interconnection of technology and ethics. It has rots in Science and Technology Studies (STS), philosophy of technology, and various sub-areas of Applied Ethics which focus on technology. The term “Technoethics” was coined in by the philosopher Mario Bunge to describe the responsibilities of technologists and scientists to develop ethics as a branch of technology (Bunge, 1977). Bunge argued that the current state of technological progress was guided by ungrounded practices based on limited empirical evidence and trial-and-error learning. He recognized that “the technologist must be held not only technically but also morally responsible for whatever he designs or executes: not only should his artifacts be optimally efficient but, far from being harmful, they should be beneficial, and not only in the short run but also in the long term.” He recognized a pressing need in society to create a new field called ‘Technoethics’ to discover rationally grounded rules for guiding science and technological progress. The early development of Technoethics is rooted in the cross-fertilization of sub-areas of Philosophy of Technology, Applied Ethics, and Science and Technology Studies (STS), which focus on the interconnection of technology and ethics embedded in society. Key scholarly contributions linking ethics, technology, and society can be found in a number of seminal works: The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (Jonas, 1979), On Technology, Medicine and Ethics (Jonas, 1985), The Real World of Technology (Franklin, 1990), Thinking Ethics in Technology: Hennebach Lectures and Papers, 1995-1996 (Mitcham, 1997), Technology and the Good Life (Higgs, Light & Strong, 2000), and Readings in the Philosophy of Technology (Kaplin, 2004), and Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology (Tavani, 2004.). This resulting scholarly attention to ethical issues arising from technological transformations of work and life has helped given rise to a number of key areas (or branches) of technoethical inquiry under various research programs (I.e., computer ethics, engineering ethics, environmental Technoethics, biotech ethics, nanoethics, educational Technoethics, information and communication ethics, media ethics, and Internet ethics).

Recent Developments

Despite the amassing body of scholarly work related to Technoethics beginning in the 1970s, Technoethics became institutionalized and recognized only recently as an important interdisciplinary research area and field of study. In 1998, the Epson Foundation founded the Instituto de Tecnoética in Spain under the direction of Josep Esquirol. This institute has actively promoted technoethical scholarship through awards, conferences, and publications (see Esquirol, 2002, 2003). This helped encourage scholarly work for a largely European audience. The major driver for the emergence of Technoethics can be attributed to the publication of major reference works available in English and circulated gloabally. The Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics (Mitcham, 2005) included a section on Technoethics which helped bring it into mainstream philosophy. This helped to raise further interest leading to the publication of the first reference volume in the English language dedicated to the emerging field of Technoethics. The two volume Handbook of Research on Technoethics (Luppicini & Adell, 2008) explores the complex connections between ethics and the rise of new technologies (E.g., life-preserving technologies, stem cell research, cloning technologies, new forms of surveillance and anonymity, computer networks, Internet advancement, etc.). This recent major collection provides the first comprehensive examination of Technoethics and its various branches from over 50 scholars around the globe. The emergence of Technoethics can be juxtaposed with a number of other innovative interdisciplinary areas of scholarship which have surfaced in recent years such as technoscience and technocriticism.

References

Bao, Z. & Xiang, K. (2006). Digitalization and Global Ethics, Ethics and Information Technology, 8: 41-47.

Bunge, Mario. (1977). "Towards a Technoethics," Monist 60(1): 96–107.

Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the character of contemporary life: A philosophical inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Esquirol, Josep M., ed. (2002) Tecnología, Ética y Futuro: Actas del I Congreso Internacional de Tecnoética. Bilbao, Spain: Editorial Desclée de Brouwer.

Esquirol, Josep M., ed. (2003) Tecnoética: Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Tecnoética. Barcelona: Publicaciones Universitat de Barcelona.

Galván, José María. (2003) “On Technoethics,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4 (December), pp. 58-63.

Jonas, H. (1979). The imperative of responsibility: In search of ethics for the technological age. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Jonas, H. (1985). On technology, medicine and ethics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Luppicini, R., & Adell, R. (eds.) (2008). Handbook of Research on Technoethics. Hershey: Idea Group Publishing.

Luppicini, R., (2008). The emerging field of Technoethics. In R. Luppicini and R. Adell (eds.). Handbook of Research on Technoethics (pp. 1-18). Hershey: Idea Group Publishing.

Mitcham, C. (1994). Thinking through technology. University of Chicago Press.

Mitcham , C. (1997). Thinking ethics in technology: Hennebach lectures and papers, 1995-1996. Golden, CO: Colorado School of Mines Press.

Mitcham, C. (2005). Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.