將技術物帶入道德思辨

When mediating the relation between humans and reality, artifacts help to constitute both the objects in reality that are experienced or acted upon and the subjects that are experiencing and acting. This implies that the subjects who act or make decisions about actions are never purely human, but rather a complex blend of humanity and technology. When making a decision about abortion on the basis of technologically mediated knowledge about chances that the child will suffer from a serious disease, this decision is not 'purely' human, but neither is it entirely induces by technology. （…）Moral decision-making is a joint effort of human beings and technological artifacts.  

Peter-Paul Verbeek, Morality in design: Design ethics and the morality of technological artifacts

這是一篇非常有趣的短文。Verbeek於這篇文章中企圖以一種特別的方式將技術物與其之設計帶入倫理道德的思辨之中。以往提及工程倫理，多聚焦於個人之行為—譬如工程師是否具備道德感、專業團體是否有貫徹其專業等—相較於此，Verbeek以超音波顯影此一科技為例，論證有此一科技的加入，便轉化了人工流產的道德爭辯—超音波顯影技術使得孕婦、胎兒、醫師的關係發生變化—這是技術物的作用之一：改變人們對於現象的詮釋。技術物的作用之二是影響我們能做出的選擇，例如若是沒有汽機車，我們就很難做出「將人撞死」這項選擇。故技術物作為人們行為的中介，除了重塑對於現象的詮釋，也改變了行為的自由程度。現代社會之中技術物處處皆是，也中介了我們許許多多的決策，這樣看來，倫理道德的思考必須將技術物帶回才可能更為適當。在這個意義上，設計也是一種倫理行動（ethical activity）。