Research Project Responsibility Ethics as a New Paradigm for Engaging Technological Developments

Both the promises and dangers of new technologies are becoming increasingly apparent. Developments around artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have the potential to radically transform fields such as transportation and medicine, among others. At the same time, these new technologies pose major challenges: human autonomy and the right to privacy, for example, are increasingly being questioned.

Although there is increasing Christian reflection on new technologies, it often focuses either on big questions, around the evaluation of “the technological environment” as such (the macro level), or rather on practical questions, for example about whether or not to live stream church services (the micro level). There is little Christian theological reflection at the intermediate level, namely ethical reflection on specific new developments, such as AI (the meso level); however, that is precisely where many challenges lie.

In addition to the challenge facing Christians, there is also more broadly the challenge of how we as a society deal with these new developments. One response to this is the emergence of post-phenomenology, which is being further developed in the Netherlands by Peter-Paul Verbeek; this approach speaks in nuanced terms about the advantages and disadvantages of new technologies and emphasizes the importance of ethical reflection in the design process beforehand, rather than focusing on ethical reflection afterwards, on developed products. This requires that engineers themselves develop an ethical sensibility. Moreover, there is a need for an ethical approach that can deal with the moral complexity that arises with new technologies (such as around Automated Driving Systems).

Objective and Impact

In light of the above double challenge, this project has two objectives. First, we want to contribute to Christian thinking through technological challenges; we focus on the meso level of reflection on new developments. Christian thinking in this vein has already been developed; in the Netherlands this has been done particularly within the tradition of Reformational Philosophy. The research we propose takes a new approach, one that fits well with the contemporary postmodern context. This potentially more fruitful approach is that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer – in line with his theology, we have already taken the first steps in thinking through a Christian attitude toward technological developments (for example, in the chapter “Contributing to a Theological Ethics of Technology: Reconsidering Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” written by Steven van den Heuvel in the volume The Vitality of Evangelical Theology).

Second, we aim to help further develop responsibility ethics as a framework for addressing ethics in the design process of new technologies. This ethical approach integrates commandment ethics with consequence ethics, as well as virtue ethics. The approach was first developed by Max Weber in 1919, for professional politicians: he recognized that commandment ethics is often not useful for the thorny situations that politicians face on a daily basis – and at the same time, he found a one-sided focus on consequences alone insufficient.

Weber’s proposal to combine commandment and consequence ethics has been further developed by Christian theologians­–Dietrich Bonhoeffer and H. Richard Niebuhr, in particular, have made substantial contributions to this. Non-Christian thinkers have also contributed to the further development of the ethics of responsibility (such as Hans Jonas). ­

Precisely because responsibility ethics, better than other ethical systems, can deal with moral dilemmas, this approach is suitable as a compass for engineers and others contributing to the development of new technologies.

Output

Academically, the main output will consist of two dissertations, examining the biblical-theological basis of accountability ethics and developing a model of an ethics of responsibility that can be employed by technical engineers, in the development of new technologies. Both dissertations will appear in print.
Furthermore, an interdisciplinary international academic conference will be organized, resulting in an academic volume. In addition to academic output valorizing activities will be organized.

 

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