On the Role of Ethics in Shaping Technology Development
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Important changes are taking place currently regarding the role of ethics in technology, particularly in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. The adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the resolution A/RES/70/1 on September 27th, 2015, entitled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", better known as "sustainable development goals", is making that different international organizations and countries adopt it as the minimum reference ethical framework for assuring that this revolution in course supports and contributes to achieving these goals. To better understand these changes, it is important to make a historical reference to how technology and the role of ethics have been understood during the past 50 years. In this paper, I take as reference the influential book "The Challenge Presented to Cultures by Science and Technology” (1977) by the Genevan philosopher Jean Ladriére, some ethical proposals made during the '90s, to end with some recent European Union (2019) and World Economic Forum (2018) ethical proposals. I conclude that there are continuities and discontinuities, first in Jean Ladriére's and others' conceptions of science and technology, and how recent proposals approach the issue, and second in the role of ethics in this fascinating and revolutionary process. However, we may envisage a radical transformation of the conception of technology in the context of the worldwide request to shape the fourth industrial revolution.
Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2020-01-02-05
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