Abstract
I argue in this paper against the commonplace that technology is neutral — that only the uses involve human valuing. And given the valueladenness of technology, I suggest a normative framework by which the technological process — design, fabrication, and use — can proceed responsibly.
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Notes
R. A. Buchanan, Technology and Social Progress (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1965), p. 163.
Arnold Pacey, The Culture of Technology (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1983), pp. 1–3.
George Grant, “The Computer Does Not Impose on Us the Way it Should Be Used,” in A. Rotstein, ed., Beyond Industrial Growth (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), pp. 117–131.
Pacey, ibid, ch. 1.
For elaboration, see a similar definition in Stephen Monsma, ed., Responsible Technology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), ch. 2. My formulation throughout is influenced by this volume.
Harold A. Innis, The Bias of Communication (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951).
Grant, ibid., pp. 125–26.
Pacey, ibid., p. 102.
Quine, Erkenntnis, 1975, pp. 327–328.
Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 6.
Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. William Lovitt (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1977), pp. 14 ff.
Pacey, ibid., pp. 76–77.
Pacey, ibid., pp. 70–77.
For elaboration, see Monsma, ibid., pp. 170–177.
Peter Schrag, “Rubber Tomatoes: The Unsavory Partnership of Research and Agribusiness,” Harper’s, June 1978, pp. 24–29; Mark Kramer, “The Ruination of the Tomato,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1980, 245:1, pp. 72–77; Marjorie Sun, “Weighing the Social Costs of Innovation,” Science, 30 March 1984, pp. 1368–69.
Sean MacBride, Many Voices-One World, (Place de Fontenoy, Paris: UNESCO, 1980).
Hans Jonas, “Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics,” Social Research, Spring 1973, pp. 31–54.
An argument developed brilliantly by Manfred Stanley, The Technological Conscience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press [1978], 1981).
E.g., Paulo Freire, The Politics of Education: Culture, Power and Liberation (South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1985), chs. 6–8, 12; Paulo Freire, Literacy: Reading the Word and the World (South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1987), pp. 1–27.
Cf. Monsma, ibid., ch. 11.
For a cogent review of the argument and literature, see John Pauly, “Ivan Illich and Mass Communication Studies,” Communication Research, 10:2, April 1983, pp. 259–280.
Ivan Illich, Shadow Work (Boston: Marion Boyars, 1981), p. 29.
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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Christians, C. (1989). A Theory of Normative Technology. In: Byrne, E.F., Pitt, J.C. (eds) Technological Transformation. Philosophy and Technology, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2597-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2597-7_9
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