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In the essay Moralizing Technology: On the Morality of Technological Artifacts and

Their Design written by Peter-Paul Verbeek, he explains the possibility of technologies impact
on humans moral decisions and actions. In this essay, I will aid in explaining this notion; I will
summarize and explain Verbeeks account of how technologies can mediate perception and
action, and how they also mediate intentionality and freedom. I will then argue for or against his
views.
Intro 2nd sentence: OR he explains how and why technologies may be considered moral agents.
How technologies mediate perception and action
Verbeek begins his article by asking if technologies should have morality attributed to them and
if they can be considered as moral agents. In order to answer these questions, Verbeek leans on
his belief that technologies mediate perception and action; if technologies do this, then they will
also shape our moral decisions and thus they can be considered moral agents. Verbeek uses the
term technological mediation to aid in his point that technologies contain the ability to
influence things that humans do. This means that technologies intervene the way that humans
experience and act in the world. Verbeek looks at these two notions closer: technologies
mediation of experience or perception, and their mediation of action.
Human experience defined by Verbeek means, the ways in which their world is present
to them (Verbeek 228). This is the way that humans see the world; technological mediation of
perception/experience would therefore be defined as the way in which technologies intervene the
way that humans experience the world. To make his point, Verbeek first uses Martin Heideggers
notion of readiness-to-hand and present-at-hand (Verbeek 228). For example, when someone
is first learning to drive a car, they are more conscious of actually driving the car; hand

placement on the wheel, pressure applied to the breaks and gas pedal etc. This is an example of
present-at-hand. Once the driver becomes proficient with driving, they begin to focus their
attention on other things; the road, the radio, other drivers. This shift to proficiency is
Heideggers notion of readiness-to-hand. If the breaks were to seize, it would shift back to
present-at-hand, as the drivers attention would shift back to the car. Heideggers notion clearly
demonstrates technologies mediation of perception; once the driver becomes proficient with
driving, the technology opens up new avenues of attention for the driver.
Verbeek continues to develop his argument with Don Idhes philosophy of technology to
articulate how artifacts can mediate human experience, which is also very similar to Heideggers
readiness-to-hand notion (Verbeek 228). The notion Idhe uses is the embodiment relation,
this may be better understood as a technology providing a lens for the user. For example, when
driving a car, your environment is perceived the way it is because you are driving the car, you are
looking through a cars lens; the environment would be different if the person was walking.
The second notion that Verbeek mentions of Idhes is the hermeneutic relation, this means that
technologies do not provide access to reality but provide a representation of reality, which then
needs to be interpreted (Verbeek 229). Verbeek uses the example of someone using a
thermometer to explain his point; reading a number off of the thermometer doesnt give a
sensation of heat or cold, but instead the person must interpret the number to convey a sense of
reality (229). These two notions therefore demonstrate technologies mediation of our sensory
relationship with reality (Verbeek 229). Verbeek also makes note that according to Idhe, this
transformation always has a structure of amplification and reduction, which he likes to call,
technological intentionality (229); certain aspects of reality are highlighted and others are
diminished. For example, using an infrared camera to look at a tree; the aspects of the tree seen

with the naked eye are diminished but other aspects like its health are amplified (Verbeek 229).
Not only are technologies mediating perception but they can also be said to have an intention;
they play a role between humans and the world they live in (Verbeek 229). The final of Idhes
notions that Verbeek uses is the phenomenon of multistability; technologies have the capability
of serving different functions, for example, the telephone was originally meant for the blind, not
as a means of communication. So, the technological intentionality is dependent on the context,
or stability that comes about of the technology (Verbeek 229).
Human action, defined by Verbeek, is conceived as the ways in which human beings are
present in the world (228). Verbeek begins by using Bruno Latours concept of script to
describe the influence of artifacts on human actions (229); artifacts are prescribing humans
actions. In Latours essay, A Collective of Humans and Non-humans he uses the example of a
speedbump to convey this concept of script; the speedbump forces the driver to slow down
because of the way the material is made (163). Similar to the amplification and reduction effect
of technologies mediating perception is the inviting or the inhibiting of actions from the
mediation of technologies. The material object of the speedbump invites the action of slowing
down, and inhibits the action of speeding up.

Because technologies have the power to shape humans perception and action by seeing some
things of having greater importance because they are highlighted more, we may think something
is more ethically important because of the ways technology is amplifying it. Example:

Implications of mediation approach to ethics.

Verbeek wants to say that technologies effect our perception and how we act.
Perception: the ways in which the world is presented to humans; how artifacts mediate human
experiences and interpretations of reality (228)
2 relationships humans can have with technologies, embodiment relation (Ihde. Same as
readiness to hand) and hermeneutic relation (228). These technologies transform what we
perceive. (229)
Transformation of perception has amplification and reduction. (229)

Action:

Conclusion: these ways that technologies mediate perception and action aid in Verbeeks
argument that technologies can be considered moral agents.
How technologies mediate intentionality and freedom
Moral agency requires at least some form of intentionality and some degree of freedom, which
artifcats form of intiontionality, and to rethink the role of freedom in moral agency (227)

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