Abstract
The technological mediation approach aspires to complement current Technology Assessment (TA) practices. It aims to do so by addressing ethical concerns from ‘within’ human-technology relations leading to ethical Constructive Technology Assessment (eCTA), as articulated by Kiran, Asle H., Nelly Oudshoorn, and Peter-Paul Verbeek in their 2015 article. In this paper, we problematize this ambition. Firstly, we situate the technological mediation approach in the history of TA. Secondly, as a study into the normativity from ‘within’ human-technology relations, we reveal the phenomenological and existential origins of Verbeek's technological mediation approach. Thirdly, we show that there are two possible readings of this approach: a strong and a weak one. The weak reading can augment current TA practices but is eventually uncommitted to the idea of technological mediation. The strong reading defines a wholly new scope for our engagement with (emerging) technologies but is incompatible with existing TA approaches
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 299-315 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of responsible innovation |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 16 Jul 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2 Sept 2018 |
Keywords
- UT-Hybrid-D
- Ethics
- Technological mediation
- Normativity
- Postphenomenology
- Technology assessment