NDLI: Moral Responsibility, Technology, and Experiences of the Tragic: From Kierkegaard to Offshore Engineering

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Coeckelbergh, Mark
Copyright Year	2010
Abstract	The standard response to engineering disasters like the Deepwater Horizon case is to ascribe full moral responsibility to individuals and to collectives treated as individuals. However, this approach is inappropriate since concrete action and experience in engineering contexts seldom meets the criteria of our traditional moral theories. Technological action is often distributed rather than individual or collective, we lack full control of the technology and its consequences, and we lack knowledge and are uncertain about these consequences. In this paper, I analyse these problems by employing Kierkegaardian notions of tragedy and moral responsibility in order to account for experiences of the tragic in technological action. I argue that ascription of responsibility in engineering contexts should be sensitive to personal experiences of lack of control, uncertainty, role conflicts, social dependence, and tragic choice. I conclude that this does not justify evading individual and corporate responsibility, but inspires practices of responsibility ascription that are less ‘harsh’ on those directly involved in technological action, that listen to their personal experiences, and that encourage them to gain more knowledge about what they are doing.
Starting Page	35
Ending Page	48
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13533452
Journal	Science and Engineering Ethics
Volume Number	18
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	14715546
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2010-09-24
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Moral responsibility Engineering Technology Tragedy Kierkegaard Deepwater Horizon Biomedical Engineering Philosophy of Science Medicine/Public Health Ethics Philosophy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Issues, Ethics and Legal Aspects Health (social science) Management of Technology and Innovation Health Policy

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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Moral Responsibility, Technology, and Experiences of the Tragic: From Kierkegaard to Offshore Engineering

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