Abstract
The present chapter introduces and defends the Capability-Technology Affinity Thesis, i.e. the claim that there are close, but hitherto unexplored, relations between technology and the capability approach. After a general characterization of technology it provides three arguments in support of this thesis. Firstly, we show that research in the philosophy of technology in the last decades has demonstrated that views on human values and assumptions about human capabilities have been inscribed into technology. We describe how a value turn in thinking about design and a design turn in thinking about ethics come together in the beginning of the twenty-first century in what has been referred to as “value sensitive design”. Secondly, we argue that there is an internal relation between the good life and technology. Thirdly, we defend an analysis of technology as an agentive amplifier of human capabilities. We conclude by drawing attention to the fact that research in the capability approach and technological design have been disparate and that this needs to be remedied in order for the capability approach to realize its full potential as a practically relevant ethical approach concerned with improving the fate of the global poor and the quality of life in the century of high technology.
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- 1.
The trolley problem is an often discussed thought experiment in ethics, first introduced by Philippa Foot (1967), in which a person is put in a difficult ethical dilemma concerning how to respond to a threatening situation involving an approaching trolley.
- 2.
Russell Hardin was one of the prominent contributors to The Theory of Institutional Design (Cambridge UP, 1996) and has worked, like Pettit, Brennan, Dryzek, Luban, Goodin and others on institutional design. Institutional, constitutional, legal and governance arrangements are the object of design efforts and they need to be explicitly evaluated and analysed as such. Hardin claimed that morality needs to be designed in to the organizational structure. Others who have focussed on design approaches are Pogge, Sunstein and Thompson. See also Pogge et al. (forthcoming).
- 3.
See van den Hoven (2012) for a detailed account of Ortega’s view on technology.
- 4.
See for a detailed and formal account van den Hoven et al. (2012).
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This research has been made possible by a grant from NWO, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.
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van den Hoven, J. (2012). Human Capabilities and Technology. In: Oosterlaken, I., van den Hoven, J. (eds) The Capability Approach, Technology and Design. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3879-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3879-9_2
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