Criticism And Construction Of "Moral Materialization"

The idea of "Materializing Morality" is a new trend of thought in the field of contemporary technology ethics.It refers to the abstract moral concept through appropriate technical design,so that it can be reflected in the structure and function of artifacts to have a moral guiding and normative effect on human behavior.Since its emergence,this idea has been widely concerned by the academic community,with some in favor,some in doubt,and some in misunderstanding.Therefore,the premise of the research on this topic needs to grasp the ideological core,clarify the original appearance of the theory and grasp the essential problems.Only in this way can we constructively supplement and transcend the original theory and give practical enlightenment in combination with practical problems.The emergence and development of the idea of "Materializing Morality" has profound theoretical origins and practical foundations.In terms of theoretical origins,Foucault’s view of the power structure and ethical theory,Ihde’s post-phenomenological theory,and Latour’s actor-network theory provide theoretical origins for the thought of "Materializing Morality ";In terms of practical basis,the ancient Chinese "Rituals Hidden in Utenil" and some modern technical practices show the interweaving characteristics of morality and technology,which provides a basis for the realistic proof of "morality materialization".In the theoretical proposal and systematic interpretation,the Dutch scholar Achterhuis clearly proposed the concept of "Materializing Morality" for the first time.With the development and deepening of Verbeek,a relatively complete theoretical system recognized by the academic circles has been formed,mainly including four aspects:technology intermediary theory,non-humanistic ethics,the morality of understanding technology and the morality of design technology.Since the idea of "Materializing Morality" has already had a theoretical and realistic origin,why did it develop in the contemporary era?First of all,the style of modern technology is different from the previous technology.The enrichment of technical practice forms accelerates the development of Materializing Morality practice and cognition and promotes the generation of this idea.Secondly,the philosophy of technology shows different limitations at each stage which requires the intervention of a new trend of thought to realize the new development of the philosophy of technology.Finally,the interaction between technology and morality requires the expansion of the cornerstone of ethics,while traditional ethics cannot undertake this important task.It needs Materializing Morality to specify and demonstrate the internal and external connections between technology and morality.From a practical point of view,the time from the emergence to development of the thought of "moral materialization" is still short,and the theory itself must have certain deficiencies.Therefore,in the face of new theories,we should focus on criticism and construction.In the criticism of the theory,this paper first discusses the misunderstanding and controversy of this idea in three aspects:the controversy of technology as a moral actor,the controversy about freedom,and the misunderstanding of moralized design.The reason for these three kinds of criticism is that we cannot fully,accurately and moderately understand the theoretical connotation of the idea of Materializing Morality,so we need to clarify and re-explain it.In essence,it is the author’s criticism of academic criticism,in order to realize the correct understanding of this thought and defend this thought.Furthermore,in the fifth chapter,the author gives his own understanding of this idea and points out its difficulties,which mainly include:the ambiguity of the relationship between humans and technology,the empty division of responsibilities,and the extension of the technical design cycle;And further analyze the reasons for the dilemma:the lack of human-technical action mechanism,the complexity of responsibility division,and the lack of the integrity principle of technical design.The analysis of these three issues constitutes the main content of the critique of this thought.Based on the critical analysis of the theory,the author gives a constructive conception of this theory,the purpose is to surpass this thought and try to put forward the practical enlightenment of technical practice.In view of the ambiguity of the relationship between humans and technology,from the perspective of human-technology joint,we give supplementary explanations on the role of human beings,the role of technology,and the new quality under human-technology joint moral action;Fundamentally expand the human-technology joint perspective to a "separate but inseparable" human-technology relationship;In response to the empty problem of responsibility division,we strive to build an ethical code of responsibility and accountability from three aspects:the division of forward-looking responsibility and retrospective responsibility,the determination of user and non-user responsibility,and the principle of responsibility allocation;Aiming at the problem of prolonging the technical design cycle,we propose three aspects:the criterion for predicting the maximum value of technical adjustment results,the criterion for avoiding the greatest evil,and the principles of responsibility and prudence to delimit the boundary for technical design and improve design efficiency.A systematic"polycentric design" concept that sublimates ethical design from design subject to the design value.In addition,we reflect on our constructive transcendence from the perspective of technological practice and combined with China’s national conditions.In terms of the form of technology practice,starting from the human-technology relationship of "separation but not separation",this paper puts forward the technology governance form of human technology cooperation;In terms of the ethics of technology practice,this paper puts forward the concept of ethics accompanied by responsibility;On the premise of technical practice,the attention to the moral implication in the technical design stage is extended to the cultural value in the whole field of technical practice,and it is proposed that the premise of technical practice is to integrate the cultural value in the technical design stage.Correctly facing and applying the regulating effect of technology on morality requires us to continuously conduct new theoretical explorations on the basis of accepting the idea of Materializing Morality.Only when criticism and construction are carried out at the same time can this theory become a new idea and method for people to coordinate contemporary technical moralization issues.Therefore,the construction theory of this paper comes from "moral materialization",goes beyond "moral materialization",and finally puts forward enlightenment from the perspective of practice,which truly realizes the technical philosophy turn of "doing".