Research themes
Moral issues in engineering design and R&D
One of the key questions here is: In what ways are (moral) values embedded in engineering design and in R&D and how can design and R&D (both processes and outcomes) be made more accommodating and sensitive with regard to accepted moral values? This raises the further question which methodologies and institutional safeguards exist or can be developed for value-sensitive design and R&D.
An important focus will be on technological risks. One of the issues here is how risks, e.g. regarding health and safety, are dealt with in engineering design and R&D. Relevant questions are: How could technological risks be better addressed from a moral point of view? When are they (morally) acceptable? How could technological risks best be regulated?
A second issue concerns conflicting values in engineering design and in R&D. Engineers are usually confronted with a multiplicity of values, which are in turn translated into design requirements or design criteria. These multiple values often conflict, and trade-offs have to be made among the different values. Proposals will be developed for better procedures of dealing with conflicting values in engineering.
A third issue is the distribution of moral responsibilities for potential societal consequences of technology. Design and R&D projects increasingly take place in networks, which involve different kinds of actors. These networks often lack a strict hierarchy and a clear task division, and in these networks decisions are subject to negotiation. This increases the likelihood of the problem of many hands, which is the difficulty to identify, even in principle, the person responsible for some outcome, if a large number of people is involved in an activity. Research will aim at developing a notion of moral responsibility and at the designs of network structures that help to overcome the problem of many hands in design and R&D networks.
Projects belonging to this research theme
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