Abstract
The responsibility of engineers and designers for the products they design is a common topic in engineering ethics and ethics of technology. However, in this chapter we explore what designing for the value of responsibility could entail. The term “design for the value of responsibility” can be interpreted in (at least) two ways. First, it may be interpreted as a design activity that explicitly takes into account the effect of technological designs on the possibility of users (and others) to assume responsibility or to be responsible. Second, it may refer to a design activity that explicitly affects the allocation of responsibility among the ones operating or using the technology and other affected people. In this chapter, we discuss both interpretations of design for the value of responsibility. In both interpretations, a technological design can be said to affect a person’s responsibility. As there are no explicit methods or approaches to guide design for responsibility, this chapter explores three cases in which design affected responsibility and develops on basis of them design heuristics for design for responsibility. These cases are the alcohol interlock for cars in Sweden, the V-chip for blocking violent television content and developmental podcasting devices in rural Zimbabwe. We conclude by raising some open issues and suggesting future work.
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Notes
- 1.
Even in this case, agencies may be seen as responsible in the sense that they inform the public about the risks involved in drunk driving, etc., but the general idea is that the individual driver is the main responsible actor.
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Fahlquist, J.N., Doorn, N., van de Poel, I. (2015). Design for the Value of Responsibility . In: van den Hoven, J., Vermaas, P., van de Poel, I. (eds) Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_18
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