On the Role of Values in the Configuration of Technology: From Axiology to Ethics

Abstract

Nowadays, the role of values in the configuration of technology appears as a crucial topic. (1) What technology is and ought to be depends on values. These values can be considered in a twofold framework: the structural dimension and the dynamic perspective. (2) Axiology of technology takes into account the existence of these values—structural and dynamic—of its configuration, because technology is not a value-free undertaking and it has an “internal” side as well as an “external” part. Thus, axiology of technology studies the role of the “internal” values of technology (those characteristic of technology itself) and the task of “external” values of technology (those around this human undertaking). (3) Subsequently, the ethics of technology deals with ethical values. In this regard, the ethical analysis of technology is also twofold: there is an endogenous perspective (as a free human undertaking related to the creative transformation of the reality) and an exogenous viewpoint, insofar as technology is related to other human activities within a social setting.