Morality in a Technological World: Knowledge as Duty

The technological advances of contemporary society have outpaced our moral understanding of the problems that they create. How will we deal with profound ecological changes, human cloning, hybrid people, and eroding cyberprivacy, just to name a few issues? In this book, Lorenzo Magnani argues that existing moral constructs often can not be applied to new technology. He proposes an entirely new ethical approach, one that blends epistemology with cognitive science. The resulting moral strategy promises new dignity for overlooked populations, both of today and of the future.

• Reveals the unexpected ways technology affects our lives • Examines the status of current ethical reasoning • Offers new approaches to making ethical decisions and enhancing responsibility in a technological world

1. Respecting people as things; 2. Treating people as means; 3. Hybrid people, hybrid selves; 4. Knowledge as duty; 5. Freedom and responsibility; 6. Creating ethics; 7. Inferring reasons.