Ethicist as designer: a pragmatic approach to ethics in the lab

Area of Science:

• Technology Ethics
• Computer Science Ethics
• Design Ethics

Background:

• Growing impact of technology necessitates early ethical considerations in design.
• Current approaches lack consensus on the type of ethics and who should conduct it.
• Existing methods, whether pragmatic or reflective, haven't achieved widespread adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the gap in integrating ethics into early-stage technological development.
• To propose a novel, pragmatic approach to ethics in research and design.
• To introduce the "ethicist as designer" role.

Main Methods:

• Defining a pragmatic view of ethics for practical application in design.
• Outlining a value analysis process: uncovering, scrutinizing, and translating values.
• Establishing the ethicist's role within interdisciplinary design teams.

Main Results:

• A framework for pragmatic ethical analysis is presented.
• The "ethicist as designer" role is defined to facilitate value integration.
• A series of steps for conducting pragmatic value analysis is detailed.

Conclusions:

• The proposed "ethicist as designer" model offers a practical solution for early-stage ethical integration.
• This role ensures ethics provides utility throughout the design process.
• Specific tasks for the ethicist as designer are outlined for interdisciplinary teams.