We would like to invite you to Haizea Escribano's Qualifier presentation during which she will present her PhD Research Proposal titled "The role of technological artefacts in ethical assessment: An exploration of metaethical, ontological, and methodological issues".
Abstract: Philosophy of technology has long been concerned with conceptualising the moral role of technological artefacts, and the urgency of this task has greatly been heightened by the distinct ethical challenges posed by new emerging technologies. One compelling metaethical premise that could be used as a starting point to discern this moral role is found in non-individualistic ethical frameworks (Brey, 2014; Floridi, 2013; Verbeek, 2008, 2012, 2016). These approaches support the claim that ethics should be done in a way that it gives a clear moral role not only to humans but also to technological artefacts. However, I aim to argue that these non-individualistic approaches are generally scarce or underdeveloped, despite their marked potential. My research aims to elucidate whether any of these theoretical frameworks could benefit from incorporating (i) a certain systematisation of ontological categories, (ii) a quantitative operational method to ethically assess real life scenarios, as well as (ii) a nuanced stance on the possibility to ascribe agency to artefacts. I will give special consideration to Brey’s structural ethics framework since it may be the one that is best fitted to append (i)-(iii); however, these appendices could also work independently to construct a brand new non-individualistic ethical theory of technology.
Haizea's PhD research is part of the ESDIT Research Project.
The presentation is scheduled for Monday, the 13th of May 2023 from 13:00 to 15:00. The meeting will be held in person in RA2504 and on MS Teams.
The agenda is as follows:
13:00 Presentation of the research proposal
13:20 Q&A for all participants
13:45 End of the plenary session & evaluation by the Qualifier Committee
Supervisory Team:
Prof. dr. Philip Brey (Promotor)
Dr. Adam Henschke (Daily supervisor)
Dr. Julia Hermann (External qualifier committee member)
Prof. dr. Joel Anderson (External qualifier committee member)
