Futures, Visions, and Responsibility (eBook)

Martin Sand completed his PhD at the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Armin Grunwald and Prof. Ibo van de Poel (TU Delft).​

Acknowledgments 7
Contents 10
List of Tables and Figures 14
Abstract 15
1. Introduction 17
1.1 Research Question 17
2. A Humanist Ethics of Innovation 21
2.1 Innovation 21
2.2 Systems, Evolution, and Agency 29
2.3 Technological Determinism and Postphenomenology 42
2.4 A Humanist Ethics of Innovation 53
3. Responsibility and Visioneering—Opening Pandora’s Box 63
3.1 Up-Front Visions 63
3.2 Wagging the Finger at Visioneering 66
3.3 The Compartments of Pandora’s Box 71
3.4 Autonomy 72
3.5 Intentions and Alternatives 75
3.6 Recklessness and Negligence 82
3.7 Accountability 87
3.8 Future Challenges in Dealing with Futuristic Narratives 90
4. Responsibility, Determinism, and Freedom 94
4.1 Introduction 94
4.2 Causation and Determinism 100
4.3 Agency and Responsibility 114
4.4 Explaining Action 123
4.5 Varieties of Compatibilism 134
4.6 Effect Compatibilism and Psychological Determinism 141
4.7 Utilitarianism and Retributivism 153
4.8 Conclusions 165
5. Moral Luck and Intelligibility 168
5.1 Moral Luck 168
5.2 Constitutive Moral Luck 178
5.3 Perspectives and Incompatibility 188
5.4 Moral Sentiments and Reactive Attitudes 194
5.5 Explanation and Intelligibility 203
5.6 Lucky and Unlucky Innovators 212
6. Collective and Corporate Responsibility 216
6.1 The Problem of Agency Revisited 216
6.2 Collective Responsibility—The Existentialist Account 224
6.3 Corporate Responsibility—French’s Account 231
6.4 Responsibility Incorporated—Pettit’s Account 240
6.5 Collective and Corporate Responsibility as Pragmatic Foreshortening 249
7. The Virtues and Vices of Innovators 255
7.1 Introduction 255
7.2 The Current Debate—Innovation, Visions, and Responsibility 257
7.3 Crediting Virtue Ethics 261
7.4 Character and Excellences 264
7.5 The Virtues and Vices of Innovators 269
7.6 Innovation and Excellences 275
8. A Vision for the Future of Responsibility 279
8.1 Summary 279
8.2 The Symmetry of Praise and Blame 288
References 300