Abstract
This article aims to demonstrate—in line with the overarching goal of the collected volume „Evolving Business Ethics“—the fruitfulness of the order ethics approach to the new moral challenges that arise in the context of autonomous vehicles. To this end, we begin this article by giving a brief summary of the recent literature in applied ethics on autonomous driving. Secondly, the article summarizes the argument of our influential 2017 paper Autonomous Cars: In Favor of a Mandatory Ethics Setting. Based on the order ethics framework, the paper makes the case that a mandatory ethics setting (MES) is in the considered interest of both morally inclined as well as purely selfish agents. Finally, the present article aims to illuminate the normative thrust of the core argument by defending it against two recent lines of critique.
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Notes
- 1.
We have altered the case such that it meets the re-description of the original case on p. 62. In the first description of the case, the car initially does not anticipate the elderly cyclist.
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Müller, J.F., Gogoll, J. (2022). The Ethics of Crashing: Defending the Order Ethics Approach. In: Lütge, C., Thejls Ziegler, M. (eds) Evolving Business Ethics. Wirtschaftsethik in der globalisierten Welt. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05845-4_10
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