Study On The Construction Of Ethics Of Technology

Although discussions on the Ethics of Technology have been around for thirty years, thepossibility and conditions of the possibilty for the construction of the Ethics of Technology todate have not been systematically contemplated and reflected. This condition of thepossibility includes the genesis and the development of the Philosophy of Technology, therelationship between technology and value, the theoretical and realistic background of birth ofthe Ethics of Technology, and the structure of this theory. As a result, there are still manymisconceptions on defining the Ethics of Technology. This makes it hard to carry outthorough discussions. This is also why the Ethics of Technology often encounters questionsand skepticism. Therefore, discussion and investigation on the possibility of constructing theEthics of Technology and its conditions is necessary and urgent. To sort out and analyze theadvantages and disadvantages of the theories on the Ethics of Technology of foreign countriescan promote our study on the Ethics of Technology. It will become beneficial to construct theEthics of Technology based on Chinese culture.The thesis starts with studying the concept of technology. Through the analyses of theorigin of the word technology and its uses in speech, technology carries deeper meaning,which includes: real, cognitive and social technology. After tracing the development of thethoughts on technology from ancient Greek, Medieval age, Modern age, to German classicalphilosophers, the Philosophy of the Technology following its birth, especially theanthropological philosophy of technology from Kapp, Gehlen, Plessner, and the concept oftechnology from Heidegger and Dessauer's is pursued. It illustrates that the technology is amedium, a part of culture, and that the goal of the technology is to realize harmony. It showsthat we have already had the history of thoughts as base for constructing the Ethics ofTechnology. It also demonstrates that the social historical conditions have also matured forconstructing the Ethics of Technology by further reviewing and analyzing the historicalbackground of the rise of the Ethics of Technology in Germany, USA and China. Furthermore,the article discusses about the right position for the Ethics of Technology via analyses of therelationships of many theories through introspecting some basic questions. These questionsinclude the aim of the theory constructing, research objects and addresses as well as itsrelationship with the general ethics, as relationship between the technology and the freedom,and that between the Ethics of Technology and the technology evaluation. All these suggestthat the theoretical basis is also ready to construct the Ethics of Technology. The Ethics of Technology studies originated from western. Its concepts and researchmethods are closely related to the western philosophy, ethics and the philosophy oftechnology. By choosing the main schools of the western Ethics of Technology based ondeontology, negative utilitarism, diskurs ethics and prudence (or practical wisdom), the thesisanalyzes and comparcs their models with the present ones from the point of view of thepurposes, instrumentality, advantages and imperfection. This will deepen our knowledge onthe theory of the Ethics of Technology. These studies have profound academic enlightenmentfor us to carry out deeper and thorough discussions on the Ethics of Technology. On the otherhand, their disadvantages suggest that there is a certain limitation which the culture exerts onthe constructing of any ethics. In another word the ethics is always based on the culture whereit is constructed. Under such circumstances, through the analysis of the essence of the valueand thc risk, reflexive on the intrinsic quality of "unity in multitude" of harmony and itsmethodological functions, for example, systemacity, cognitivity, regenerability andevaluatabilty, it is proposed that harmony itself is a method, also a systematically technology,and the harmony and technology relates to the Ethics of Technology intrinsically. Therefore itis feasible to construct an Ethics of Technology based on harmony which combines rules andmorals, principles and methods. At the end of this thesis, a sketch of harmonious Ethics ofTechnology is given. The author brings forward that such an Ethics of Technology shouldtake harmony as its aim principle, justice as the system principle, practical wisdom as themethodological principle, sustainable development as the evaluating principle.