Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect - Oxford Handbooks

"The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology gives readers a view into this increasingly vital and urgently needed domain of philosophical understanding, offering an in-depth collection of leading and emerging voices in the philosophy of technology. The thirty-two contributions in this volume cut across and connect diverse philosophical traditions and methodologies. They reveal the often-neglected importance of technology for virtually every subfield of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and political theory. The Handbook also gives readers a new sense of what philosophy looks like when fully engaged with the disciplines and domains of knowledge that continue to transform the material and practical features and affordances of our world, including engineering, arts and design, computing, and the physical and social sciences. The chapters reveal enduring conceptual themes concerning technology's role in the shaping of human knowledge, identity, power, values, and freedom, while bringing a philosophical lens to the profound transformations of our existence brought by innovations ranging from biotechnology and nuclear engineering to artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics. This new collection challenges the reader with provocative and original insights on the history, concepts, problems, and questions to be brought to bear upon humanity's complex and evolving relationship to technology"-- Provided by publisher Self-respect is central to many liberal accounts of social justice, as it is necessary for individuals to effectively pursue their plans of life. In particular, extant work on self-respect has focused on its social bases—that is, how social norms can shape the opportunities people have for developing and maintaining a sense of self-respect. However, much of this work overlooks the role information technology plays in such social processes. Given its pervasiveness—from search engines to automated facial and body scanners—and impact on people’s lives, scholars ought to pay closer attention to the ways human identity and dignity are not only socially, but also sociotechnically informed. To that end, this chapter recovers and expands on John Rawls’ “social bases of self-respect” to introduce the idea of the “sociotechnical bases of self-respect” to better account for the place of information technology in shaping possibilities for the development of individuals’ dignity. Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 1 Abstract and Keywords 1 1. Introduction 1 Anna Lauren Hoffmann 1 Edited by Shannon Vallor 1 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 2 2. Rawls and the Social Bases of Self-Respect 2 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 3 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 4 3. Taking Self-Respect’s Social Bases Seriously 4 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 5 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 6 4. Sociotechnical Relations and Self-Respect 6 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 7 5. Analyzing the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 7 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 8 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 9 5.1 Domain 1: Privacy and Surveillance 9 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 10 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 11 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 12 5.2 Domain 2: Information and Identity 12 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 13 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 14 6. Conclusion 14 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 15 References 15 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 16 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 17 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 18 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 19 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 20 Rawls, Information Technology, and the Sociotechnical Bases of Self-Respect 21