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  • 12 - The ethics of IT-artefacts

  • Edited by Luciano Floridi, University of Hertfordshire
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    15 April 2010, pp 201-218

  • Summary

    This chapter provides an overview of the main approaches in the field of Science and technology studies (STS) with regard to technical artefacts. It describes various kinds of increasingly capable information technology (IT) artefacts as agents and discusses what kind of attributions (intentionality, selfrepresentation, attribution of intentionality to others by an artefact, etc.) might be meaningful. The chapter discusses the question of whether there is anything that sets IT-artefacts apart from technical artefacts. It argues that we might have to accept the idea that IT-artefacts possess some form of intentionality independent of humans in order to make sense of their behaviour and their moral status. The question of whether artefacts need mental states in order to count as moral agents focuses on what is required for moral agency and, in particular, on whether IT-artefacts need mental states in order to be able to act morally.