THE RISE OF RESPONSIBILITY


The concept of responsibility is relatively young when compared to other philosophical terms. This recent rise to importance if not ubiquity of the term is more than just a fashion, and it is caused by the combination of social developments and the failure of traditional moralities to address these developments. Ethics and morality have of course never been perfect in dealing with whatever was perceived as moral problems. The rapid and deep changes in Western societies during the last 200 years , however, have been an insurmountable challenge for many traditional ways of coping with modifications of the social fabric. The call for responsibility is linked to the perception that moral norms are deficient in controlling human action (Kaufmann, 1990, p. 72; 1995, p. 88).

It is helpful to see what the changes were that led to the growing importance of responsibility to appreciate why the concept is applicable to IS. One of the roots of social changes, maybe the most important one, was industrialisation with its close connection to science and technology. We have already seen the link between science and technology, but there is another aspect that is important to explain the impact on ethics. From the beginning of enlightenment, science and technology were understood to be positive. While the ancient Greeks saw science as the theoretical contemplation of the world and thus did not attach any moral relevance to it, this viewpoint changed radically with the advent of enlightenment. Francis Bacon was the thinker who most eloquently changed the role of science from value-free contemplation to an active tool for overcoming the shortages of the world (cf. H ffe, 1995). Ever since then, it was clear that science and technology were to serve human needs and therefore every progress in science and technology was a progress for humanity. For centuries this idea was generally accepted even by critical philosophers . Karl Marx for example criticised society and its workings, but he saw technology not as a root of the problem but as a potential solution. This belief in technology, whose shortcomings became visible during industrialisation and its social and ecological results, was irreparably damaged during the 20th century. The first serious hit it took was the first World War, during which destruction was administered on a scale that had been unimaginable before. The wholesale slaughtering of a generation of Europeans in just five years was only possible with the help of technology. The technological enhancement of war was continued in World War II and in most of the following conflicts. Maybe even worse than the intentional use of science and technology for destructive purpose for the belief in the positive properties of technology were the unintentional problems it created. Spectacular technological catastrophes such as the ones in Chernobyl, Bhopal, or a host of others mark one side of this problem. The apparently limitless increase in scope and size of technology entails the corresponding increase in accidents. Worse , however, are those catastrophic results of technology that do not result from a single accident , but from the continuous use of technology conforming to rules and the original intention . This is where we find ecological problems such as global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer, but also problems that threaten the material basis of technology itself, most notably the shortage of natural resources. The conceptual limits of technology are at the same time the limits of progress. We know now that technological advances are not intrinsically good, but that most technological developments are at best ambiguous. While the examples used so far come from the sphere of classical and large technologies, information technology is no exception to this rule. Nowadays, more new developments reach us from the field of IT than from classical technologies, and therefore the ethical problems produced by IT are increasingly coming to public attention. We will discuss some of these problems later in connection to the practical problems of responsibility and IS.

We can state that the originally optimistic view that technological and scientific progress would lead to social progress has been replaced with a more cautious mood, in many cases even with an attitude of rejection of technology. This change in attitude is caused by the results of technology on the one hand and by the realisation of our collective limits on the other hand. Many ethically motivated rejections of technology are based on the fact that modern technology has results of an order of magnitude and with long-range effects that surpass everything mankind traditionally had to deal with. There is a growing sense that our responsibilities must be extended in the same way that our power and our capacity to do damage is extending (Ricoeur, 1995c, p. 64). It is characteristic for our present-day understanding of responsibility that it comprises the multitude and variety of topics and problems that have become subject of human action and decision, and that are therefore believed to be relevant to responsibility (Krawietz, 1995, p. 185).

We have now seen that the development of responsibility as a term to address ethical and moral questions results from the progress in science and technology, and the resulting increase of human power. Jonas (1984) explicitly bases his theory of responsibility on these developments and tries to develop a model of responsibility that is suited to deal with our new power. Technology and power, however, are but two aspects of social change that has led to the apparent insufficiency of traditional morality. In the next section we will discuss some other aspects, all of which create the background of the modern discussion of responsibility and at the same time the setting for capitalism and modern information technology.




Responsible Management of Information Systems
Responsible Management of Information Systems
ISBN: 1591401720
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 52
Authors: Bernd Stahl

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