The Ethics of Technology

Abstract

This book develops an analytic ethics of technology based on a geometric account of moral principles. The author argues that geometric concepts such as points, lines, and planes are useful for clarifying the structure and scope of five moral principles: (1) the cost-benefit principle, (2) the precautionary principle, (3) the sustainability principle, (4) the fairness principle, and (5) the autonomy principle. The geometric approach derives its normative force from the Aristotelian dictum that we should “treat like cases alike.” The more similar a pair of cases are, the more reason do we have to treat the cases alike. These similarity relations can be analyzed and represented geometrically. In such a geometric representation, the distance in moral space between cases reflects their degree of similarity. The more similar a pair of cases are from a moral point of view, the shorter is the distance between them. To assess to what extent the geometric method is practically useful for analyzing real-world cases the author has conducted three experimental studies based on data gathered from academic philosophers in the United States and Europe and engineering students at Texas A&M University. The results indicate that experts (philosophers) and laypeople (engineering students) do in fact apply geometrically construed moral principles in roughly, but not exactly, the manner advocates of geometrically construed principles believe they ought to be applied.