Socially Disruptive Technologies, Contextual Integrity, and Conservatism About Moral Change

Ibo van de Poel

doi:10.1007/s13347-022-00578-4

Socially Disruptive Technologies, Contextual Integrity, and Conservatism About Moral Change

Philos Technol. 2022;35(3):82. doi: 10.1007/s13347-022-00578-4. Epub 2022 Aug 30.

Author

Ibo van de Poel¹

Affiliation

¹ Section Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Department of Values, Technology & innovation, School of Technology, Policy & Management, TU Delft, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, the Netherlands.

Abstract

This commentary is a response to Contextual Integrity as a General Conceptual Tool for Evaluating Technological Change by Elizabeth O'Neill (Philosophy & Technology (2022)). It argues that while contextual integrity (CI) might be an useful addition to the toolkit of approaches for ethical technology assessment, a CI approach might not be able to uncover all morally relevant impacts of technological change. Moreover, the inherent conservatism of a CI approach might be problematic in cases in which we encounter new kinds of morally problematic situations, such as climate change, or when technology reinforces historically grown injustices.

Keywords: Contextual integrity; Disruptive technologies; Ethics; Technological change; Technomoral change; Value change.

Publication types

Editorial