Die Arbeit untersucht Gadamers Beitrag zur Hermeneutik vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte dieser ... more Die Arbeit untersucht Gadamers Beitrag zur Hermeneutik vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte dieser Disziplin. In einem ausführlichen historischen Teil werden dabei drei Paradigmen der Hermeneutik näher untersucht, die sehr verschiedene Konzeptionen des Verhältnis von ‚Wahrheit‘ und ‚Textverstehen‘ darstellen. Neben der traditionsstiftenden Hermeneutik der Spätantike und des Mittelalters (Philo v. Alexandria, Augustinus, Origenes), werden die rationalistischen Aufklärungshermeneutik (Spinoza, Thomasius, Wolff, Meier, Chladenius) und die romantische Hermeneutik (Herder, Schleiermacher, Dilthey) behandelt. Die zentrale These ist dabei, dass die Leistungen der an der Vernunft orientierten Aufklärungshermeneutik in der Folge von Gadamers Einfluss häufig unterschätzt wurden. Dabei versucht der Autor, die Stärken der rationalistischen Hermeneutik auch für die Gegenwart geltend zu machen und Gadamers Konzeption aus einer Perspektive der Aufwertung der Vernunft neu zu deuten.
The chapter introduces a distinction between a person-related and a circumstance directed type of... more The chapter introduces a distinction between a person-related and a circumstance directed type of happiness in order to investigate in which way modern technology can contribute to human happiness. This distinction is elaborated as the difference between ‘achiever’s happiness’ and ‘spectator’s happiness’. Looking at the ethical tradition, it is argued that moral philosophers have certain expectations about what should count as true happiness for human beings, who can act in accordance with moral values. The essay presents three arguments for the superiority of achiever’s happiness from a moral point of view. Looking at modern technology it is argued that we find both in an optimistic and a pessimistic evaluation of modern technology valuable insights into the role that technology can (and can not) play for the human striving for happiness. Finally persuasive technologies are presented as one type of recent technologies that promises to contribute to achiever’s happiness if developed...
Virtue accounts of innovation ethics have recognized the virtue of creativity as an admirable tra... more Virtue accounts of innovation ethics have recognized the virtue of creativity as an admirable trait in innovators. However, such accounts have not paid sufficient attention to the way creativity functions as a collective phenomenon. We propose a collective virtue account to supplement existing virtue accounts. We base our account on Kieran’s definition of creativity as a virtue and distinguish three components in it: creative output, mastery and intrinsic motivation. We argue that all of these components can meaningfully be attributed to innovation groups. This means that we can also attribute the virtue of creativity to group agents involved in innovation. Recognizing creativity as a collective virtue in innovation is important because it allows for a more accurate evaluation of how successful innovation generally happens. The innovator who takes a collective virtue account of creativity seriously will give attention to the facilitation of an environment where the group can flouris...
Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, 2014
Mediation is the claim that technologies have an impact on the way in which we perceive the world... more Mediation is the claim that technologies have an impact on the way in which we perceive the world and on the way we act in it. Often this impact goes beyond human intentions: it can hardly be understood only in terms of intentions of the user or in terms of intentions of the designer. Mediation argues that technologies have agency themselves and then tries to explicate the way in which technological objects and human subjects form a complex relation and constitute each other. Designers should anticipate mediation effects and can use mediation to moralize technologies. However, questions can be asked about how far the moralizing of technologies is compatible with user autonomy
Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics, 2013
Oil is one of the drivers of Western industrial societies. Our pattern and (increasing) quantity ... more Oil is one of the drivers of Western industrial societies. Our pattern and (increasing) quantity of oil consumption, however, is becoming more and more problematic for a number of reasons. First, oil and other fossil fuel stocks are finite and will at some point run out or become prohibitively costly to mine, both in economic and in environmental terms. Second, burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to global climate change. Third, dependence on oil implies dependence on oil-producing countries – countries that might not always be politically stable or well disposed toward oil-importing countries and thus threaten the importing countries’ energy security (Landeweerd et al. 2009). Biofuels have been hailed as a replacement that had the potential to address all those problems. First, biofuels are made from plants or algae ( fuel crops ) that can be cultivated indefinitely, rather than coming from a limited stock. Second, biofuels were initially considered to be carbon neutral, where the amount of carbon emitted during combustion would be the same as the amount stored in the plant during growth, leading to a net carbon emission of zero (however, see section Land Use ). Third, fuel crops can be grown anywhere, though conditions in the (sub)tropics favor certain kinds of crops such as oil palms, which means that it lessens dependence on oil-producing countries. In addition, two arguments are often mentioned in favor of using biofuels rather than alternative energy sources for the transport sector: First, biofuels can be blended with fossil fuels and thus can utilize our existing infrastructure, whereas the switch to electric cars or a hydrogen economy would require massive infrastructural changes. Second, heavy-duty vehicles such as airplanes cannot as yet be powered by fuel cells or batteries but could be powered by biofuels (Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2011, 19, hereafter the NCB). In practice, however, many types of biofuels have not lived up to their promises or even exacerbated problems and created normative, practical, and political challenges besides. This entry aims to give an overview of ethical issues of biofuels and their treatment in the literature. In particular, after giving an introduction on what biofuels are, this entry presents an overview of ethical challenges on two levels: the practical and policy level, where concrete ethical problems arise and are addressed by governments and advisory and regulatory bodies, and the theoretical level, where the choice of theoretical framework influences which problems and possible solutions are highlighted. Issues related to GM agriculture and intellectual property are not addressed here as those topics are covered elsewhere
Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education ... more Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typology of case-study approaches and subsequently tested an evaluation method to assess the students’ learning experiences (basic needs and motivation) and outcomes (competence development) and staff interpretations and operationalizations, seeking to answer three questions: (1) Do students in the CBL approach report higher basic needs, motivation and competence development compared to their peers in the detached approach? (2) What is the relationship between student-perceived co-creation and their basic needs, motivation and competence developmen...
Digitalization affects the relation between human agents and technological objects. This paper lo... more Digitalization affects the relation between human agents and technological objects. This paper looks at digital behavior change technologies (BCT) from a deontological perspective. It identifies three moral requirements that are relevant for ethical approaches in the tradition of Kantian deontology: epistemic rationalism, motivational rationalism and deliberational rationalism. It argues that traditional Kantian ethics assumes human ‘subjects’ to be autonomous agents, whereas ‘objects’ are mere passive tools. Digitalization, however, challenges this Cartesian subject-object dualism: digital technologies become more and more autonomous and take on agency. Similarly, human subjects can outsource agency and will-power to technologies. In addition, our intersubjective relations are being more and more shaped by digital technologies. The paper therefore re-examines the three categories ‘subject’, ‘object’ and ‘intersubjectivity’ in light of digital BCTs and suggests deontological guideli...
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
This paper investigates the modal shift patterns of e-bike users in the Dutch context. We focus o... more This paper investigates the modal shift patterns of e-bike users in the Dutch context. We focus on the change in e-bikers' travel behavior to assess whether this change benefits sustainability. Our study provides direct ecologically valid evidence on modal shift by using a longitudinal dataset from the Netherlands Mobility Panel survey. We examine e-bikers' modal shift patterns before and after acquiring an e-bike. The findings indicate that after e-bike adoptions, conventional bike use reduces significantly, while car use reduces less strongly. Nonetheless, the share of car kilometers is much larger than that of conventional bikes at the baseline. Besides, the emission rate per passenger kilometer of an e-bike is several times lower than that of a car. These imply a net environmental gain after e-bike adoptions. The present study also sheds light on modal shifts at a disaggregated level by investigating those e-bikers who are more likely to drive less after e-bike adoption. The findings suggest that e-bikers younger than 50 and those around retirement age (60-69) seem more likely to step out of their cars. Additionally, people living in rural areas tend to be more likely to reduce their car use than their counterparts in highly urbanized areas. Based on our findings, we present policy recommendations for achieving a greener shift in mobility systems.
The UN Agenda 2030 lends itself to an interpretation in light of the human rights framework and r... more The UN Agenda 2030 lends itself to an interpretation in light of the human rights framework and related contractualist ethical theories. These frameworks have been developed in the context of Western individualism. This paper analyses the sustainable development goals in light of the debate between human rights on the one side and the rights of nature on the other side. It argues that human rights are often (though not exclusively) linked to social contract theories. The paper points out strengths and weaknesses of contractualist individualism. It discusses various challenges to the contractualist framework. How can contractualist individualism deal with the representation of future generations? What assumptions does the social contract make with regard to the nature of the individual? Should we conceive of them, e.g., as utility maximizers or as idealized rational agents? A final weakness of the framework is that contractualism seems to ignore other values, especially the value of nature. The paper therefore sketches recent developments in ethical theory that attempt to go beyond Western individualism.
Die Arbeit untersucht Gadamers Beitrag zur Hermeneutik vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte dieser ... more Die Arbeit untersucht Gadamers Beitrag zur Hermeneutik vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte dieser Disziplin. In einem ausführlichen historischen Teil werden dabei drei Paradigmen der Hermeneutik näher untersucht, die sehr verschiedene Konzeptionen des Verhältnis von ‚Wahrheit‘ und ‚Textverstehen‘ darstellen. Neben der traditionsstiftenden Hermeneutik der Spätantike und des Mittelalters (Philo v. Alexandria, Augustinus, Origenes), werden die rationalistischen Aufklärungshermeneutik (Spinoza, Thomasius, Wolff, Meier, Chladenius) und die romantische Hermeneutik (Herder, Schleiermacher, Dilthey) behandelt. Die zentrale These ist dabei, dass die Leistungen der an der Vernunft orientierten Aufklärungshermeneutik in der Folge von Gadamers Einfluss häufig unterschätzt wurden. Dabei versucht der Autor, die Stärken der rationalistischen Hermeneutik auch für die Gegenwart geltend zu machen und Gadamers Konzeption aus einer Perspektive der Aufwertung der Vernunft neu zu deuten.
The chapter introduces a distinction between a person-related and a circumstance directed type of... more The chapter introduces a distinction between a person-related and a circumstance directed type of happiness in order to investigate in which way modern technology can contribute to human happiness. This distinction is elaborated as the difference between ‘achiever’s happiness’ and ‘spectator’s happiness’. Looking at the ethical tradition, it is argued that moral philosophers have certain expectations about what should count as true happiness for human beings, who can act in accordance with moral values. The essay presents three arguments for the superiority of achiever’s happiness from a moral point of view. Looking at modern technology it is argued that we find both in an optimistic and a pessimistic evaluation of modern technology valuable insights into the role that technology can (and can not) play for the human striving for happiness. Finally persuasive technologies are presented as one type of recent technologies that promises to contribute to achiever’s happiness if developed...
Virtue accounts of innovation ethics have recognized the virtue of creativity as an admirable tra... more Virtue accounts of innovation ethics have recognized the virtue of creativity as an admirable trait in innovators. However, such accounts have not paid sufficient attention to the way creativity functions as a collective phenomenon. We propose a collective virtue account to supplement existing virtue accounts. We base our account on Kieran’s definition of creativity as a virtue and distinguish three components in it: creative output, mastery and intrinsic motivation. We argue that all of these components can meaningfully be attributed to innovation groups. This means that we can also attribute the virtue of creativity to group agents involved in innovation. Recognizing creativity as a collective virtue in innovation is important because it allows for a more accurate evaluation of how successful innovation generally happens. The innovator who takes a collective virtue account of creativity seriously will give attention to the facilitation of an environment where the group can flouris...
Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, 2014
Mediation is the claim that technologies have an impact on the way in which we perceive the world... more Mediation is the claim that technologies have an impact on the way in which we perceive the world and on the way we act in it. Often this impact goes beyond human intentions: it can hardly be understood only in terms of intentions of the user or in terms of intentions of the designer. Mediation argues that technologies have agency themselves and then tries to explicate the way in which technological objects and human subjects form a complex relation and constitute each other. Designers should anticipate mediation effects and can use mediation to moralize technologies. However, questions can be asked about how far the moralizing of technologies is compatible with user autonomy
Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics, 2013
Oil is one of the drivers of Western industrial societies. Our pattern and (increasing) quantity ... more Oil is one of the drivers of Western industrial societies. Our pattern and (increasing) quantity of oil consumption, however, is becoming more and more problematic for a number of reasons. First, oil and other fossil fuel stocks are finite and will at some point run out or become prohibitively costly to mine, both in economic and in environmental terms. Second, burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to global climate change. Third, dependence on oil implies dependence on oil-producing countries – countries that might not always be politically stable or well disposed toward oil-importing countries and thus threaten the importing countries’ energy security (Landeweerd et al. 2009). Biofuels have been hailed as a replacement that had the potential to address all those problems. First, biofuels are made from plants or algae ( fuel crops ) that can be cultivated indefinitely, rather than coming from a limited stock. Second, biofuels were initially considered to be carbon neutral, where the amount of carbon emitted during combustion would be the same as the amount stored in the plant during growth, leading to a net carbon emission of zero (however, see section Land Use ). Third, fuel crops can be grown anywhere, though conditions in the (sub)tropics favor certain kinds of crops such as oil palms, which means that it lessens dependence on oil-producing countries. In addition, two arguments are often mentioned in favor of using biofuels rather than alternative energy sources for the transport sector: First, biofuels can be blended with fossil fuels and thus can utilize our existing infrastructure, whereas the switch to electric cars or a hydrogen economy would require massive infrastructural changes. Second, heavy-duty vehicles such as airplanes cannot as yet be powered by fuel cells or batteries but could be powered by biofuels (Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2011, 19, hereafter the NCB). In practice, however, many types of biofuels have not lived up to their promises or even exacerbated problems and created normative, practical, and political challenges besides. This entry aims to give an overview of ethical issues of biofuels and their treatment in the literature. In particular, after giving an introduction on what biofuels are, this entry presents an overview of ethical challenges on two levels: the practical and policy level, where concrete ethical problems arise and are addressed by governments and advisory and regulatory bodies, and the theoretical level, where the choice of theoretical framework influences which problems and possible solutions are highlighted. Issues related to GM agriculture and intellectual property are not addressed here as those topics are covered elsewhere
Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education ... more Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typology of case-study approaches and subsequently tested an evaluation method to assess the students’ learning experiences (basic needs and motivation) and outcomes (competence development) and staff interpretations and operationalizations, seeking to answer three questions: (1) Do students in the CBL approach report higher basic needs, motivation and competence development compared to their peers in the detached approach? (2) What is the relationship between student-perceived co-creation and their basic needs, motivation and competence developmen...
Digitalization affects the relation between human agents and technological objects. This paper lo... more Digitalization affects the relation between human agents and technological objects. This paper looks at digital behavior change technologies (BCT) from a deontological perspective. It identifies three moral requirements that are relevant for ethical approaches in the tradition of Kantian deontology: epistemic rationalism, motivational rationalism and deliberational rationalism. It argues that traditional Kantian ethics assumes human ‘subjects’ to be autonomous agents, whereas ‘objects’ are mere passive tools. Digitalization, however, challenges this Cartesian subject-object dualism: digital technologies become more and more autonomous and take on agency. Similarly, human subjects can outsource agency and will-power to technologies. In addition, our intersubjective relations are being more and more shaped by digital technologies. The paper therefore re-examines the three categories ‘subject’, ‘object’ and ‘intersubjectivity’ in light of digital BCTs and suggests deontological guideli...
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
This paper investigates the modal shift patterns of e-bike users in the Dutch context. We focus o... more This paper investigates the modal shift patterns of e-bike users in the Dutch context. We focus on the change in e-bikers' travel behavior to assess whether this change benefits sustainability. Our study provides direct ecologically valid evidence on modal shift by using a longitudinal dataset from the Netherlands Mobility Panel survey. We examine e-bikers' modal shift patterns before and after acquiring an e-bike. The findings indicate that after e-bike adoptions, conventional bike use reduces significantly, while car use reduces less strongly. Nonetheless, the share of car kilometers is much larger than that of conventional bikes at the baseline. Besides, the emission rate per passenger kilometer of an e-bike is several times lower than that of a car. These imply a net environmental gain after e-bike adoptions. The present study also sheds light on modal shifts at a disaggregated level by investigating those e-bikers who are more likely to drive less after e-bike adoption. The findings suggest that e-bikers younger than 50 and those around retirement age (60-69) seem more likely to step out of their cars. Additionally, people living in rural areas tend to be more likely to reduce their car use than their counterparts in highly urbanized areas. Based on our findings, we present policy recommendations for achieving a greener shift in mobility systems.
The UN Agenda 2030 lends itself to an interpretation in light of the human rights framework and r... more The UN Agenda 2030 lends itself to an interpretation in light of the human rights framework and related contractualist ethical theories. These frameworks have been developed in the context of Western individualism. This paper analyses the sustainable development goals in light of the debate between human rights on the one side and the rights of nature on the other side. It argues that human rights are often (though not exclusively) linked to social contract theories. The paper points out strengths and weaknesses of contractualist individualism. It discusses various challenges to the contractualist framework. How can contractualist individualism deal with the representation of future generations? What assumptions does the social contract make with regard to the nature of the individual? Should we conceive of them, e.g., as utility maximizers or as idealized rational agents? A final weakness of the framework is that contractualism seems to ignore other values, especially the value of nature. The paper therefore sketches recent developments in ethical theory that attempt to go beyond Western individualism.
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