Reihe herausgegeben vonA. Grunwald, Karlsruhe, DeutschlandR. Heil, Karlsruhe, DeutschlandC. Coenen, Karlsruhe, Deutschland

Technikzukünfte, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft / Futures of Technology, Science and Society

Diese interdisziplinäre Buchreihe ist Technikzukünften in ihren wissenschaftli-chen und gesellschaftlichen Kontexten gewidmet. Der Plural „Zukünfte“ ist dabei Programm. Denn erstens wird ein breites Spektrum wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen beleuchtet, und zweitens sind Debatten zu Technowissenschaften wie u.a. den Bio-, Informations-, Nano- und Neurotechnologien oder der Robo-tik durch eine Vielzahl von Perspektiven und Interessen bestimmt. Diese Zukünf- te beeinflussen einerseits den Verlauf des Fortschritts, seine Ergebnisse und Fol-gen, z.B. durch Ausgestaltung der wissenschaftlichen Agenda. Andererseits sind wissenschaftlich-technische Neuerungen Anlass, neue Zukünfte mit anderen gesellschaftlichen Implikationen auszudenken. Diese Wechselseitigkeit reflektie-rend, befasst sich die Reihe vorrangig mit der sozialen und kulturellen Prägung von Naturwissenschaft und Technik, der verantwortlichen Gestaltung ihrer Ergebnisse in der Gesellschaft sowie mit den Auswirkungen auf unsere Bilder vom Menschen.

This interdisciplinary series of books is devoted to technology futures in their sci-entific and societal contexts. The use of the plural “futures” is by no means acci-dental: firstly, light is to be shed on a broad spectrum of developments in science and technology; secondly, debates on technoscientific fields such as biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology, neurotechnology and robotics are influ-enced by a multitude of viewpoints and interests. On the one hand, these futures have an impact on the way advances are made, as well as on their results and consequences, for example by shaping the scientific agenda. On the other hand, scientific and technological innovations offer an opportunity to conceive of new futures with different implications for society. Reflecting this reciprocity, the series concentrates primarily on the way in which science and technology are influenced social and culturally, on how their results can be shaped in a responsible manner in society, and on the way they affect our images of humankind.

Weitere Bände in der Reihe http://www.springer.com/series/13596

Martin Sand

Futures, Visions, and ResponsibilityAn Ethics of Innovation

Martin SandKarlsruhe, Germany

ISSN 2524-3764 ISSN 2524-3772 (electronic)Technikzukünfte, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft / Futures of Technology, Science and Society ISBN 978-3-658-22683-1 ISBN 978-3-658-22684-8 (eBook)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-22684-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018948630

Dissertation Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, 2018

Springer VS © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2018This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer VS imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany

To K.J.

Acknowledgments

The Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has accepted this book in a slightly revised version as disserta-tion in December 2017. The dissertation was defended on January 22nd 2018.

Science is a team effort and this work is no exception in this regard. Without the continuous support of my supervisors, colleagues, friends and family, this book would have a fundamentally different (and most certainly inferior) character. Prof. Armin Grunwald, my supervisor at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITAS) in Karlsruhe, has been a mentor in a truly Homerian sense: He accompanied this project with affirmation, continuous support and constructive criticism. I am ex-tremely grateful to him for having been granted the liberty to explore this field from rather unusual directions. Armin Grunwald’s sustained trust in this project, which illustrates a virtue following the theory of this dissertation, encouraged me through difficult times. Prof. Ibo van de Poel from Delft University of Technology joined this project when it was already in an advanced stage and yet he was enthu-siastic and supportive from the very beginning. Without hesitation, Ibo embraced his role as a second supervisor, made helpful comments on the manuscript and travelled to Karlsruhe for the defence. I am looking forward to our future collabo-rations and I hope that we keep on challenging each other’s views about collective and individual responsibility.

Aside from the financial support to present this work at a number of confer-ences and to acquire additional academic and language skills, the ITAS has pro-vided a great research infrastructure, an exciting interdisciplinary environment and an open and familial atmosphere ever since I began working there as a student researcher in 2011. There is no adequate English translation of the German word “Heimat”. If such term can be applied in this context, it would be the most appro-priate description of my relation to this institution and the people who compose it. This project has benefitted greatly from discussions with numerous colleagues. I am particularly indebted to Julia Hahn, Daniel Frank, René König, Reinhard Heil, Christoph Schneider, Christopher Coenen, Arianna Ferrari, Klaus Wiegerling, Mi-chael Poznic, Karsten Bolz, Stefan Böschen and all the members of the project group “Visions as socio-epistemic practices”. I already miss the PhDs at ITAS, too

VIII Acknowledgements

many to mention all of them by name, who arranged hilarious lunch sessions at the Moltke-Mensa and other enjoyable social events. The research assistants at ITAS, particularly Elke Träutlein, Muazez Genc and Claudia Lange, contributed to creating an outstanding working environment to undertake such project without friction. Because of their assistance, my cluelessness in administrative regards never became public. Lorie Schiesl and Megan Tennant have done a superb job in helping me to improve my English. If this book is still unreadable, it is entirely my fault.

Prof. Wolfgang Neuser from the Technical University Kaiserslautern gave me the opportunity to engage with students from various backgrounds to discuss issues in business ethics from 2015-2017. The Corporate State University Baden-Württemberg also gave me the opportunity to discuss my thoughts on ethics, age-ing and technology and to receive critical feedback from eager students. Both sem-inars have been enormously valuable experiences. Being spurred to learn things for explaining them to non-philosophers, raised my awareness for many hidden facets of moral philosophy.

I am greatly indebted to the Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists (KHYS), which rewarded me with a Networking Grant to discuss my ideas with the research group of Prof. Harro van Lente at the Department of Technology and Society Stud-ies at Maastricht University in May 2015. Furthermore, the KHYS generously supported a five-month research visit at the Department of Values, Technology and Innovation at Delft University of Technology in the beginning of 2018, which al-lowed me to explore new perspectives on responsibility and further deepen the ideas outlined in this book. These international experiences have been invaluable contributions to my personal and philosophical development.

Both the Department of Values, Technology and Innovation in Delft and the Department of Technology and Society Studies in Maastricht have provided an incredibly hospitable and inspiring atmosphere, which contributed to the success of this project. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) generously funded a trip to the S.NET Conference in Arizona in 2017, where I presented some ideas from this book. In a slightly revised version, Chapter seven of this book received the Best Paper Award at the Philosophy of Management Conference in Oxford in 2016. Springer generously contributed to this prize with a book voucher.

Acknowledgements IX

I am extremely grateful for having received this honour. After submitting this the-sis, I was fortunate to receiving a Fellowship as Visiting Researcher to discuss my ideas with the members of the Graduate School “Innovation Society: Today” at Technical University Berlin. This provided me with valuable insights into the so-ciology of technology and sociological theories of agency.

Since I exist, my parents, Rosi and Herbert Sand, supported me without doubt or hesitation. Words cannot express how much I owe them. Without knowing or questioning, they have always embraced what my supervisor calls a forward-look-ing responsibility. In less technical terminology, I simply hope that they are as proud of me, as I am of them. There are numerous friends, whose patience has been tested while this book was in the making. I am extremely fortunate to have them and tremendously grateful that they always return my calls when I need guid-ance or consolidation. Their persistence helped me to master difficult times, to finish this project successfully and to keep on pursuing my peculiar athletic ambi-tions. In no particular order, these people include Lisa O., Roman, Simon, Hendrik, Manu, Christian, Lisa A., Colette, Johanna, Claudia, Jonas, Niklas, Noah, Giuli, Matthias, Do, Wouter, Lisanne, Gustavo, Rolanda, Paul, Linda and all others that feel addressed.

This book is dedicated to the person, who had the greatest influence on me in the past five years. Karin is everywhere between the lines of this book. Since I know her, she has been an endless source of inspiration, energy and intellectual fervour. Without her, my work and life would be substantially depleted. I am look-ing forward to our upcoming adventures and I cannot wait to see how she chal-lenges me next.

Contents

Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... VII 

Contents ............................................................................................................. XI 

List of Tables and Figures ............................................................................... XV 

Abstract ........................................................................................................ XVII 

1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 1

1.1  Research Question .................................................................................. 1 

2. A Humanist Ethics of Innovation ................................................................ 5

2.1  Innovation ............................................................................................... 5 

2.2  Systems, Evolution, and Agency .......................................................... 13 

2.3  Technological Determinism and Postphenomenology ......................... 26 

2.4  A Humanist Ethics of Innovation ......................................................... 37 

3. Responsibility and Visioneering—Opening Pandora’s Box .................... 47

3.1  Up-Front Visions .................................................................................. 47 

3.2  Wagging the Finger at Visioneering ..................................................... 50 

XII Contents

3.3  The Compartments of Pandora’s Box ................................................... 55 

3.4  Autonomy ............................................................................................. 56 

3.5  Intentions and Alternatives ................................................................... 59 

3.6  Recklessness and Negligence ............................................................... 66 

3.7  Accountability ...................................................................................... 71 

3.8  Future Challenges in Dealing with Futuristic Narratives ...................... 74 

4. Responsibility, Determinism, and Freedom .............................................. 79

4.1  Introduction .......................................................................................... 79 

4.2  Causation and Determinism .................................................................. 85 

4.3  Agency and Responsibility ................................................................... 99 

4.4  Explaining Action ............................................................................... 108 

4.5  Varieties of Compatibilism ................................................................. 119 

4.6  Effect Compatibilism and Psychological Determinism ...................... 126 

4.7  Utilitarianism and Retributivism ........................................................ 138 

4.8  Conclusions ........................................................................................ 150 

Contents XIII

5. Moral Luck and Intelligibility .................................................................. 153

5.1  Moral Luck ......................................................................................... 153 

5.2  Constitutive Moral Luck ..................................................................... 163 

5.3  Perspectives and Incompatibility ........................................................ 173 

5.4  Moral Sentiments and Reactive Attitudes ........................................... 179 

5.5  Explanation and Intelligibility ............................................................ 188 

5.6  Lucky and Unlucky Innovators........................................................... 197 

6. Collective and Corporate Responsibility ................................................. 201

6.1  The Problem of Agency Revisited ...................................................... 201 

6.2  Collective Responsibility—The Existentialist Account ..................... 209 

6.3  Corporate Responsibility—French’s Account .................................... 216 

6.4  Responsibility Incorporated—Pettit’s Account .................................. 225 

6.5  Collective and Corporate Responsibility as Pragmatic

Foreshortening .................................................................................... 234 

7. The Virtues and Vices of Innovators ....................................................... 241

7.1  Introduction ........................................................................................ 241 

XIV Contents

7.2  The Current Debate—Innovation, Visions, and Responsibility .......... 243 

7.3  Crediting Virtue Ethics ....................................................................... 247 

7.4  Character and Excellences .................................................................. 250 

7.5  The Virtues and Vices of Innovators .................................................. 255 

7.6  Innovation and Excellences ................................................................ 261 

8. A Vision for the Future of Responsibility ............................................... 265

8.1  Summary ............................................................................................. 265 

8.2  The Symmetry of Praise and Blame ................................................... 274 

References ........................................................................................................ 287 

List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1: The naturalist view of agency………………………………………..113

Figure 2: A non-naturalist view of agency……………………………..……….118

Table 1: The Discursive Dilemma………………………………………..….…230

Abstract

The present enquiry explores problems of responsibility at the early, vision-ary stages of technological development. After introducing the research question in chapter one, chapter two discusses the increasingly dominant concept of inno-vation. I understand innovations as novelties that can occur across disciplines, in-cluding technological, social, political, and natural realms. I will argue that such qualitative changes are ambivalent. As agency is crucial to bringing about novelty, using evolutionary metaphors as explanans for technological development is prob-lematic. The central role of agency in this process constitutes a humanist ethics of innovation. Chapter three continues with an outline of how narratives about the future are currently used to facilitate technological change, particularly with re-gard to the example of “visioneering,” to foster networks, and to raise public awareness for innovations. In this example, necessary conditions for being respon-sible (intentionality, alternatives, and accountability) are introduced, and I explain why reducing the responsibility of visioneers to their potential effectiveness is in-sufficient for holding them responsible. In chapters four and five, I discuss the problems of genuine freedom and determinism. A person’s ability to act for rea-sons is a phenomenon sui generis that is inexplicable in causal terms. I argue that because of the existence of agency, the theory of universal determinism is implau-sible. Furthermore, I argue that most forms of compatibilism that rely on weaker notions of agency presuppose a libertarian understanding of agency. By discussing the problem of moral luck and effect compatibilism, these Chapters further ad-vance the concept of responsibility by distinguishing “being responsible” from “being held responsible.” Praising and blaming, which are forms of holding agents responsible, are actions that are not always adequate responses when the basic conditions for being responsible are met. Strawson’s theory of moral sentiments is discussed as a compatibilist theory. Chapter six considers different theories of collective and corporative responsibility, as visioneers and innovators normally act in relatively structured collective settings. I advance a view that understands col-lective and corporative responsibility as pragmatic foreshortening. Chapter seven develops a constructive theory of innovators’ and visioneers’ responsibilities. These societal agents pioneering technological change are responsible for their characters, their approaches to dealing with complexity, and for determining how

XVIII Abstract

creative and eager they are to pursue new technological pathways. I argue that such virtues are important for change and that they can be trained like handling a tool. The eligibility of this virtue ethical framework is illustrated through the dis-cussion of two captivating examples–Steve Jobs and Victor Frankenstein.