SIG : Virtue Ethics
Chairs: Marc Steen (TNO) and Zoë Robaey (Wageningen University and Research)
Goal: To further develop the field of virtue ethics in the context of technology, design, engineering, innovation, and professionalism.
Format: Series of webinars
Period: January 2024 – December 2025 Contact: marc.steen@tno.nl and zoe.robaey@wur.nl
SPT members and other interested in joining this special interest group are invited to contact the chairs.
We understand virtue ethics as: facilitating people to cultivate relevant virtues so that they can flourish, with technology, and find ways to live well together. We envision work in the following themes:
· Citizens and practices: E.g., study how technologies can help, or hinder, people to cultivate specific virtues (Vallor 2016), e.g., how a social media app can corrode one’s self-control—and how we can envision alternative designs, that can instead help people to cultivate self-control.
· Professionals and institutions: E.g., view the work of technologists, and other professionals, through a virtue ethics lens (Steen 2022). We are also interested in various institutions, e.g., for governance or oversight. This theme also relates to education and training (next item, below).
· Education and training: E.g. design and implement education and training programs. This offers opportunities to study, e.g., how students or professionals cultivate virtues. This will probably involve cultivating practical wisdom or reflexivity, as a pivotal virtue (Steen et al. 2021).
· Traditions and cultures: E.g., study and appreciate various ‘Non-Western’ virtue ethics traditions, like Confucianism, Buddhism (Ess 2006; Vallor 2016) or Indigenous cultures (Steen 2022b). We can turn to feminist ethics or study virtues in specific domains, like health care or the military.
We plan to organize a series of webinars, for the various themes (above), over the course of 2024. These webinars are intended to share insights and engage in joint learning. [details to be posted]:
Furthermore, we plan to organize a paper track on virtue ethics at SPT 2025 (Eindhoven), subsequent paper development sessions, and the creation of a special issue on virtue ethics, e.g., with Techné.
Online resources · Prof Shannon Vallor’s lecture on “Technomoral Virtues and the Future of Human Flourishing” · Marc Steen: Ethics for people who work in tech, Chapter 15: Virtues and flourishing · [more links will follow; suggestions are welcome; please contact marc.steen@tno.nl]