Refining Value Sensitive Design: A (Capability-Based) Procedural Ethics Approach to Technological Design for Well-Being
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Refining Value Sensitive Design: A (Capability‑Based) Procedural Ethics Approach to Technological Design for Well‑Being Alessandra Cenci1 · Dylan Cawthorne2 Received: 18 March 2019 / Accepted: 4 May 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Fundamental questions in value sensitive design include whether and how hightech products/artefacts could embody values and ethical ideals, and how plural and incommensurable values of ethical and social importance could be chosen rationally and objectively at a collective level. By using a humanitarian cargo drone study as a starting point, this paper tackles the challenges that VSD’s lack of commitment to a specific ethical theory generates in practical applications. Besides, it highlights how mainstream ethical approaches usually related to VSD are incapable of solving main ethical dilemmas raised by technological design for well-being in democratic settings. Accordingly, it is argued that VSD’s ethical-democratic import would substantially be enhanced by the espousal of a procedural ethics stance and the deliberative approach to value and welfare entailed by Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Differently from rival ethical–political theories, its normative and meta-ethical foundations better handle human diversity, value-goal pluralism, conflicting vested interests as well as the epistemic-moral disagreements typical of contemporary complex democracies. Particularly, Sen’s capability approach procedural-deliberative tenets result in an “objective-impartial” choice procedure selecting a “hierarchy” of plural incommensurable values and rational goals thus, suitable to validate an applied science such as welfare-oriented technological design in concrete social environments. Conclusions suggest that refining VSD with a capability-based procedural approach to ethics fosters the concern for democracy and social justice while preserving vital scientific-technical standards. Major advantages are at an applied level to delivering ethically and socially justified, but yet highly functional technologies and high-tech products/artefacts. Keywords Value sensitive design (VSD) · Procedural ethics · Amartya sen’s capability approach · Technological design for well-being · Democracy · Participatory-deliberative methods * Alessandra Cenci [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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A. Cenci, D. Cawthorne
Introduction Value sensitive design (VSD) is often regarded as one of the most promising ethical approaches in engineering and technological innovation. Traditional design methods are known to have limited ability in creating ethical technology, since ethical aspects and social impact are not systematically or thoroughly considered during the design process. On the contrary, VSD is an interdisciplinary approach to the design of technology “that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process” (Friedman et al. 2013, p. 55). Its main mission is to supplement other design meth
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