Where to Political Philosophy of Technology?

Abstract

Technological challenges have recently created a need to more sharply distinguish ethics from political philosophy of technology. Are there compelling arguments that warrant pursuing a political philosophy of technology as an autonomous endeavor aside from an ethics of technology and what would its content be? The present paper responds to those two questions. Via a critical discussion of three existing views on this relationship, I will argue that the best starting point for a political philosophy of technology originates from the prevalence and intractability of reasonable disagreement. I will extend this general suggestion, forcefully defended by Charles Larmore, with the condition that such reasonable disagreement needs resolution in some situations, due to urgency and the suboptimal outcomes that ensue if no decision is reached. Many current technological challenges have those characteristics. In my conclusions, I will briefly outline how investigations of technological utopias could contribute to discussions about reasonable disagreement, thereby, opening a fruitful avenue for future research in political philosophy of technology.