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New Perspectives on Technology, Values, and Ethics pp 29–46Cite as

Values in Engineering and Technology

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 315))

Abstract

This chapter explores what values play a role in engineering and technology. It briefly argues against the thesis that technology is value-neutral. It then makes a distinction between different kinds of values: between instrumental and final values, and between internal and external values. Internal values are internal to engineering practice and are adhered to, or strived for by engineers more or less independently from the exact product they design. Internal values include technological enthusiasm, effectiveness and efficiency, reliability, robustness, maintainability, and rationality. External values are related to the effects of technologies in the external world; examples of external values are health and safety, human well-being, sustainability and justice. It is argued that while internal values are often conceived as final by engineers, in a moral sense they are usually instrumental values. Conversely, external values are often, but not always, final values that give purpose and justification to the internal values of engineering. However, to become effective in engineering, external values first need to be internalized in engineering practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Google: Achter het scherm” (i.e. “Google: Behind the Screen”), Tegenlicht, broadcast on May 7, 2006.

  2. 2.

    Text from the number “Wernher von Braun” by Tom Lehrer that featured in his album That was the year that was of 1965.

  3. 3.

    If it is used in terms of “user satisfaction,” quality seems to refer to the value of human well-being of a desire-satisfaction account of well-being is adopted. Cf. the discussion below.

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Acknowledgements

Section 2.2 contains two paragraphs and Sect. 2.3 contains three paragraphs from: Van de Poel 2009. “Values in Engineering Design.” In A. Meijers (ed.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Volume 9: Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences. Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 973–1006. Section 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 contain some paragraphs from van de Poel, I. and Royakkers, L. 2011. Ethics, Technology and Engineering. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, (sections 1.4.1 and 1.4.1 in the book). Section 2.5.2 contains two paragraphs from Van de Poel 2012. “Can We Design for Well-Being?” In P. Brey, A. Briggle and E. Spence (eds.), The Good Life in a Technological Age. N. York: Routledge, pp. 295–306. Some parts of this text have also appeared in German as van de Poel, I. 2013. “Werthaltigkeit Der Technik.” In A. Grundwald (ed.), Handbuch Technikethik. Stuttgart/Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, pp. 133–137.

This paper was written as part of the research program ‘New Technologies as Social Experiments’, which is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) under grant number 277-20-003.

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  1. Technical University of Delft, TBM-VTI-EFT; Jaffalaan, 5, 2826-BX, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ibo van de Poel

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  1. Ibo van de Poel
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Correspondence to Ibo van de Poel .

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  1. Faculty of Humanities, University of A Coruña, Ferrol, Spain

    Wenceslao J. Gonzalez

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van de Poel, I. (2015). Values in Engineering and Technology. In: Gonzalez, W. (eds) New Perspectives on Technology, Values, and Ethics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 315. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21870-0_2

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