Is Technology Value-Neutral?
Science, Technology, and Human Values 46 (1):53-80 (2021)
Abstract
According to the Value-Neutrality Thesis, technology is morally and politically neutral, neither good nor bad. A knife may be put to bad use to murder an innocent person or to good use to peel an apple for a starving person, but the knife itself is a mere instrument, not a proper subject for moral or political evaluation. While contemporary philosophers of technology widely reject the VNT, it remains unclear whether claims about values in technology are just a figure of speech or nontrivial empirical claims with genuine factual content and real-world implications. This paper provides the missing argument. I argue that by virtue of their material properties, technological artifacts are part of the normative order rather than external to it. I illustrate how values can be empirically identified in technology. The reason why value-talk is not trivial or metaphorical is that due to the endurance and longevity of technological artifacts, values embedded in them have long-term implications that surpass their designers and builders. I further argue that taking sides in this debate has real-world implications in the form of moral constraints on the development of technology.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1177/0162243919900965
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Citations of this work
Embedding Values in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems.Ibo van de Poel - 2020 - Minds and Machines 30 (3):385-409.
The Switch, the Ladder, and the Matrix: Models for Classifying AI Systems.Jakob Mökander, Margi Sheth, David S. Watson & Luciano Floridi - forthcoming - Minds and Machines:1-28.
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