Three Objections to Verbeek

摘要

Peter-Paul Verbeek defends a radical view about the moral status of technical artefacts. To put things briefly, he argues that (1) artefacts, such as 'binoculars, thermometers, and air conditioners' (p. 56), have a special and morally relevant form of intentionality and that (2) we should, partly as a consequence of this, ascribe moral agency to hybrid entities consisting of technical artefacts and ordinary humans (pp. 58-61). In addition, Verbeek claims that (3) this view about technical artefacts has important implications for traditional ethical theories, including consequentialism, Kantian duty ethics, and virtue ethics (pp. 61-63).