Research On Design For Values From Perspective Of Philosophy Of Practice

We are in an era of deep technologicalization.How to deal with the issue of value in technological innovation is one of the most important challenges for society today.The difficulty of this challenge manifests itself in two ways.The first point comes from the deep entanglement of technology and value.As people and society continue to become objects of technological transformation,to design technology is to design the way people exist.The second point is the Collingridge dilemma of innovation.This dilemma manifests itself in the following ways: on the one hand,the social consequences of technology are difficult to anticipate early in its development;on the other hand,by the time the undesired consequences are discovered,the technology has become part of the overall economic and social structure,at which point its governance becomes very difficult.We need a theoretically and practically responsible,rational,and effective way to deal with this problem.Design for values is a positive,tentative answer to this problem of our time from the philosophy of technology.To further clarify the concept of design for values,this paper divides design for values into two aspects: an extended perspective and a reflexive perspective.The extended perspective builds on the recognition of the non-instrumental nature of technology and emphasizes the comprehensiveness of design.The reflexive perspective,on the other hand,does not distinguish between the functional and non-functional values of technology;it places more emphasis on whether engineers consider values consciously and systematically in practice.The distinction between the two perspectives helps us to understand the differences in the theorical background,the aim,and the way of realization behind the use of the term design for values by different people.In addition,In addition,the philosophy of practice provides theoretical perspective for studying design for values.Philosophy of practice provides a descriptive stance for understanding the nature of technology and its relationship to society,a normative stance for viewing research as action,and a reflective stance on how to proceed with the action.The three positions of the philosophy of practice can be summarized in one sentence: to come from practice,to go to practice,to reflect and learn in practice,and to make progress in practice.The study of design for values in this paper is broadly divided into two parts.The first part of the study is the externalist approach.It answers the question of "what is the essence of design for values" by asking about the background of design for values,the problems that need to be solved,and how it has become a research topic of common concern for theory and practice.For the philosophy of technology,design for values implies a new paradigm.First,this paradigm shift is manifested in the change of research themes in philosophy of technology after the empirical turn,and design for values integrates multiple separate research paths of the empirical turn.Second,it shifts the research interest to practice – from a reflective philosophy of technology to a constructive philosophy of technology.The philosophy of technology consciously becomes the "first philosophy".From the perspective of philosophy of practice,the philosophy of technology expands from a purely descriptive position to a normative and reflective position.For ethical governance of technology,design for values represents a new practice form.This practice form is different from the critical,external or internal practices of the past;it is a hybrid practice which technology-ethics develops in a parallel way.Specifically,the new practice form is positive in its goals and advocates the positive role of ethics in technological innovation.In terms of mindset,design for values is an extension of design thinking in the ethical realm,and technological innovation is seen as a source of ethical progress.In terms of action,ethicists are directly involved in the practice of innovation,and their influence on technological development is more formal and direct as well as systematic.The new form of ethical governance practice of technology is based on a full understanding of the nature of technology and the process of technological development,and it emphasizes interdisciplinary cooperation and a shared view of responsibility.This also means that it needs to expand from the normative stance of practical philosophy to a descriptive and reflective stance.The second part of the study of design for values is the internalist approach,and it can be further divided into epistemological issues and methodological issues of design for values.The epistemological study clarifies the basic concepts such as technology and value involved in design for values.Restricted,the unit of understanding technology in design for values shift from technological artifacts to sociotechnical systems.The sociotechnical system recognizes the ethical and political nature of technology by considering society and technology as an indivisible whole.It can also move beyond narrowly defined function-structure concepts to provide a comprehensive perspective for considering the value multiplicity of technology.Second,in order to support a more unified dialogue and enable interdisciplinary collaboration,we need to reduce the confusion in current research on the concept of value.In this regard,this paper proposes a framework for understanding value in terms of how it is used and how it is categorized.Finally,the practical understanding analysis also includes the identification of the proposition that technological objects are value-laden.This proposition not only constitutes a prerequisite for design for values,but can also be used as a basis for assessing whether technological objects embody relevant moral values.This paper advocates a separate understanding of the design context,in which the value embodied in a technological object is seen as a result of the designer’s intentional embedding,and the use context,in which the value loaded in a technological object is understood as a mediation effect on people.Only by combining these two complementary perspectives can the description of how technological objects are valueladen be complete.In the methodological study,the way taken in this paper is to divide the process of design for values into three activities and to analyze the methods involved in each activity separately.Design for values is broadly divided into three activities: value discovery,value translation,and value realization.Value discovery is to reveal all relevant values of technology.On the one hand,value discovery is descriptive.It can be done by distinguishing the sources of values and by constructing a list of values,etc.On the other hand,value discovery is normative.After listing the relevant values,the engineer needs to further decide whose values and which values should be included in the design.Value translation then embeds and implements these values in the technology.Values as abstract concepts cannot be applied to technical practice by themselves,and engineers need to use the value hierarchy to translate values into concrete design requirements.However,engineers face the problem of the rationality of value translation,i.e.,whether the translated design requirements are appropriate and sufficient.Value realization refers to the realization of the value embedded in the technical object in the use practice.Past research presupposes the correspondence between design and use and ignores the independent status of technology use,which easily leads to the problem of positivism of design for values.In this paper,we analyze three influencing factors of value realization: the way technology is designed,human actors,and institutional elements.Synthesizing these analyses,design for values needs to move from an internalist approach to a hybrid approach of internalist and externalist.In terms of strategy,one should relinquish control over the use of technology and accept the imperfection of design.