Technology, Anthropology, and Dimensions of Responsibility
about this book
Abstract
Technical progress has to be balanced by responsible action
Conceptual clarification and ethical assessment of the topic
Includes debates about moral enhancement, environmental ethics, big data processing, artificial intelligence, genome editing, etc
“With great power comes great responsibility.” In today’s world, with our growing technological power and the knowledge about its impact, we are considered to be responsible for many instances that not long ago would have been deemed a matter of fate. At the same time, the looming options of, e.g., genome editing or neuroprosthetics, threaten traditional notions of responsibility if no longer the person but the technology involved is deemed to be responsible for a specific behaviour. The growing ethical debate on the expansion of human responsibility, e.g. when it comes to human-machine-interaction, ambient intelligence, or reproductive technologies, thus intertwines with the challenge to formulate an appropriate understanding of the concept of personal responsibility and our respective anthropological self-understanding in today’s technological world. The volume brings together both perspectives and aims at illuminating crucial dimensions of responsibility in light of technological innovation and our self-understanding as responsible beings.
about the editors
Birgit Beck is Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessorin) and Head of Department for Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at Technische Universität Berlin.
Michael Kühler is Associate Professor (Privatdozent) at the University of Münster, Germany.
