Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2019 Feb;25(1):55-82. doi: 10.1007/s11948-017-9999-7. Epub 2017 Nov 10.
Engineering, as a complex and multidimensional practice of technology development, has long been a source of ethical concerns. These concerns have been approached from various perspectives. There are ongoing debates in the literature of the philosophy of engineering/technology about how to organize an optimized view of the values entailed in technology development processes. However, these debates deliver little in the way of a concrete rationale or framework that could comprehensively describe different types of engineering values and their multi-aspect interrelations in real engineering practices. Approaching engineering values from a meaning-based perspective, as in this paper, can be a reliable method of tackling such a controversial problem. This paper therefore proposes that technology development be considered a systemic normative practice and attempts to provide a comprehensive view of various built-in values, their different origins and features, and a way of prioritizing them in real engineering processes. Studying two cases of the Zayandeh Rood Dam and the Abbasi Dam will lead to practical insights into how to understand norms in technology development and incorporate them into engineering practice.
工程学作为一项复杂且多维的技术开发实践，长期以来一直是人们关注的道德问题。这些关注点已经从多个角度进行了探讨。在工程学/技术哲学的文献中，关于如何组织技术开发过程中所涉及的价值的优化观点，一直存在着争论。然而，这些争论并没有提供一个具体的基本原理或框架，可以全面描述不同类型的工程价值及其在实际工程实践中的多方面相互关系。从基于意义的角度来探讨工程价值，就像本文所做的那样，是解决此类有争议问题的可靠方法。因此，本文提出将技术开发视为一种系统性的规范实践，并试图提供对各种内在价值的全面看法，包括它们的不同来源和特点，以及在实际工程过程中对它们进行优先排序的方法。研究赞詹德河大坝和阿巴斯大坝这两个案例，将有助于深入了解如何理解技术开发中的规范，并将其纳入工程实践。
