Pragmatism, public deliberation and technology ethics

Abstract

In the previous chapter I asserted that the participatory assessment of socially and ethically contentious technologies (SECT) must pay attention to three meta-ethical considerations. Firstly, that a technology ethics must pay attention to the influential role of technological artefacts in shaping social moral values, and in inhibiting and enabling the moral actions of individuals embedded within complex actor-networks. Secondly, that the application of normative ethical theories in a classical metaphysics-down-to-practical matters way is insufficient to ensure a balanced range of judgements that reflect the broad plurality of moral perspectives present within society. And thirdly, that the judgements of experts, be they scientists or moral philosophers is contested, as they possess no special insight into moral matters and hence the control of technology policy through expert judgement represents an alternative form of technocratic control.