Doing Philosophy of Technology

Pitt, Joseph C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0820-4

Cited by 28 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Choosing which technologies we incorporate into our lives is a crucial matter since they play a key role in our self-design (Pitt, 2011). The problem, however, is that we lack a method or framework to do so beyond simple heuristics because we cannot know in advance (only speculate) how a given technology will affect our lives in the long term.…”

Section: Becoming Through Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Machines and tools are objects ideally conceived "to defeat the world's resistance" (Flusser, 1991(Flusser, /2014, to overcome our "natural" limitations by augmenting or enhancing our physical or cognitive capacities. As intrinsically artificial creatures, we are the sum of the technological enhancements we choose to incorporate in our lives (Pitt, 2011), and these include everything from our means of transportation to our clothing and entertainment. In many ways, we are our technologies.…”

Section: Surveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

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On False Augmented Agency and What Surveillance Capitalism and User-Centered Design Have to Do With It

Hernández-Ramírez

2019

CITAR Journal

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Recently, there has been a surge in AI-powered products. Often marketed as "free", these services operate as hooks to lure unsuspecting users into voluntarily giving up data about every aspect of their life. Their data is the primary fuel of surveillance capitalism, a new economic system that exclusively benefits so-called Big Tech organisations at the expense of personal privacy and freedom of choice. This paper argues the ways these AI-powered products are being imagined and designed is further generalising a kind of "enframing" that encourages a bureaucratic relationship with the world disguised as (a false sense of) augmented agency. This paper shows that technologically informed philosophical reflections can contribute to getting ourselves back into the feedback loop of technological mediation by helping us recognise our "becoming" with technologies as a design process.

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Section: Becoming Through Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Surveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

On False Augmented Agency and What Surveillance Capitalism and User-Centered Design Have to Do With It

Hernández-Ramírez

2019

CITAR Journal

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“…That is to say, the complex processes and manifold aspects and features of technological developments scarcely come into analysis in such approaches; the focus is mainly on analysing the consequences from the outside (Pitt 2011;Van de Poel and Verbeek 2006).…”

Section: Technology Development As a Systemic Multi-aspect Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such attempts become even more controversial when faced with differing perceptions of the complicated, multifaceted nature of engineering practice (Clift 2011;Didier 2009;Doorn and Fahlquist 2010;Keulartz 2009;Kroes et al 2009; Van de Poel 2009;Waelbers 2009), so that the idea of organizing an optimized, overarching view of the values entailed in technology development processes seems idealistic, inaccessible, and perhaps nothing more than a blind alley, in the opinion of some scholars (see, e.g., Didier 2009;Keulartz 2009;Kroes et al 2009;Pitt 2011;Simon 1973Simon , 1976Simon , 1996Van de Poel 2009). In view of this, the main question to be dealt with in this article is how to tackle such difficulties and contribute to organizing those values in an overarching view, based on a concrete, practical foundation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology Development as a Normative Practice: A Meaning-Based Approach to Learning About Values in Engineering—Damming as a Case Study

2017

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Engineering, as a complex and multidimensional practice of technology development, has long been a source of ethical concerns. These concerns have been approached from various perspectives. There are ongoing debates in the literature of the philosophy of engineering/technology about how to organize an optimized view of the values entailed in technology development processes. However, these debates deliver little in the way of a concrete rationale or framework that could comprehensively describe different types of engineering values and their multi-aspect interrelations in real engineering practices. Approaching engineering values from a meaning-based perspective, as in this paper, can be a reliable method of tackling such a controversial problem. This paper therefore proposes that technology development be considered a systemic normative practice and attempts to provide a comprehensive view of various built-in values, their different origins and features, and a way of prioritizing them in real engineering processes. Studying two cases of the Zayandeh Rood Dam and the Abbasi Dam will lead to practical insights into how to understand norms in technology development and incorporate them into engineering practice.

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“…Bioethicists have explored the relevance and limits of specific analogies in debates on emerging bio- and nanotechnology [ 5 – 8 ]. Philosophers of science and science and technology studies (STS) scholars have carved out the innovation potential of analogies and metaphors 2 in scientific knowledge production, where they contribute to conceptual change by making whole epistemic communities think of a phenomenon from a novel perspective [ 9 – 15 ]. Research on mental models has revealed that analogical reasoning is likewise an important heuristic for lay people making sense of technological systems and their underlying scientific concepts [ 16 – 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Power of Analogies for Imagining and Governing Emerging Technologies

Schwarz-Plaschg

2018

Nanoethics

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The emergence of new technologies regularly involves comparisons with previous innovations. For instance, analogies with asbestos and genetically modified organisms have played a crucial role in the early societal debate about nanotechnology. This article explores the power of analogies in such debates and how they could be effectively and responsibly employed for imagining and governing emerging technologies in general and nanotechnology in particular. First, the concept of analogical imagination is developed to capture the explorative and anticipatory potential of analogies. Yet analogies do not simply stimulate imagination, they also restrict it by framing emerging technologies in specific ways. Thus, second, the article argues that tracing the rhetorical and persuasive power of analogical arguments is essential for understanding how analogies are constructed to legitimise assessments, funding policies, and governance approaches. Third, the article addresses factors that account for the persuasiveness of analogies in debates about emerging technologies. The article concludes with reflections on how analogical imagination and an enhanced analogical sensibility for framing and persuasive effects can foster responsible research and innovation (RRI).

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Doing Philosophy of Technology

Cited by 28 publications

References 60 publications

On False Augmented Agency and What Surveillance Capitalism and User-Centered Design Have to Do With It

On False Augmented Agency and What Surveillance Capitalism and User-Centered Design Have to Do With It

Technology Development as a Normative Practice: A Meaning-Based Approach to Learning About Values in Engineering—Damming as a Case Study

The Power of Analogies for Imagining and Governing Emerging Technologies

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