Abstract
This article explores the transformation of ethics in a globalizing technological society. After describing some basic features of this society, particularly the primacy it gives to a special type of technical rationality, three specific influences on traditional ethics are examined: (1) a change concerning the notion of value, (2) the decreasing relevance of the concept of axiological hierarchy, and (3) the new internal architecture of ethics as a net of values. These three characteristics suggest a new pragmatic understanding of ethics. From a pragmatic perspective, the process of introducing ethical values into contemporary society can be regarded as a beneficial Trojan horse, a metaphor that will be developed further.
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Notes
We refer to technological determinism because it is always an obstacle for the development of social ethics: if a strong determinism exists, ethics would then be very difficult to be sustained. Therefore, it is necessary to criticize technological determinism in order to defend human ethical capacity.
To this respect, we point out the many different forms of religious rationality in our world. Undoubtedly it possesses a decisive influence on daily life. On this issue, see Mitcham and Richardson (1999).
From an elementary particle accelerator to the so called techniques for behaviour modification, also including an immense range of “intermediate” technological products, for example computer technology, cybernetic instruments, etc.
Galilei pointed out that Science “could not do any other thing but to increase” (Galilei 1929, VII, 62).
In fact, there are “new” operating values in our society, such as environmental values, ecological values, feminist values, etc. Undoubtedly, it requires a balanced integration of them for human decisions, which are now more difficult to accomplish than in other historical periods because of the increase of social values.
This view has been commonly used to criticize ethical views. An attack on religious ethics from “scientific” ethics has been that religious ethics did not take into account the results of scientific knowledge, which was considered the only “reliable” knowledge. Without scientific references, according to scientism, the human condition was “ignored”; consequently religious moral rules became unattainable (that is to say, perhaps the worst word to be applied to ethical mandate).
Of course this does not mean we reject these reasons, either philosophical, religious, or scientific. On the contrary, we largely appreciate them in their respective fields. What we only want to remark now is that their way of justifying moral rule does not correspond to pragmatic ethics here described.
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Queraltó, R. Ethics as a Beneficial Trojan Horse in a Technological Society. Sci Eng Ethics 19, 13–26 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-011-9287-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-011-9287-x