Science and Engineering Ethics最新文献

{"title":"Beyond Innovation: The Burdens and Harms of Maintenance in Deep Brain Stimulation.","authors":"Marilena Pateraki, Frederic Gilbert","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00628-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00628-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this contribution, we explore iatrogenic harms associated with the maintenance of deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems. By conceptualizing patients with neural implants as infrastructures, we examine them as ongoing sites of maintenance that require continual care and adjustments. This analysis reveals the tradeoffs inherent in implantable neurotechnologies. Using first-hand accounts collected during a qualitative study of individuals with Parkinson's disease treated with DBS, we subsequently develop a typology of harms associated with maintenance, highlighting the ethical issues arising from the integration of technology in the body. Importantly, by focusing on older DBS devices within a healthcare system constrained by financial resources, we address a gap in the literature, as current debates tend to prioritize innovation while neglecting the difficulties of maintaining older implanted systems. Our findings show how inadequate or faulty maintenance compromises the successful incorporation and integration of technological components within the body, underscoring the ethical significance of maintenance in the context of DBS. Finally, we emphasize the inherent limitations of implanted technologies in managing chronic illness and the enduring importance of caregivers. This study calls for a more comprehensive examination of the ethical implications of the maintenance in relation to neural implants.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13612705/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149041657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Agent-Centred Nuclear Safety Principles for Small Modular Reactors.","authors":"Johanes Narasetu Widyatmanto, Rafaela Hillerbrand","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00629-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00629-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are among the new designs that promise more compact nuclear power plants (NPPs) with scalable generation capacity and shorter construction time, while retaining emission-free electricity in exchange for small amounts of manageable radioactive waste per kWh of generated electricity. Their size and modular design contribute to the growing popularity of SMRs. However, these features also present risk scenarios that do not apply to large, conventional NPPs, such as when a buyer and SMR manufacturer are located in different nations with different regulations and standardisations. Such potential new scenarios require explicit ethical considerations. Unfortunately, such considerations are absent from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety principles, particularly for SMRs. Existing nuclear safety principles are too broad to keep up with potential new scenarios introduced by the novel features of SMRs. Meanwhile, existing approaches in nuclear energy ethics are focused on specific nuclear-related issues across reactors, such as radioactive waste management and nuclear fuel processing. Drawing on Hermansson and Hansson's agent-centred ethical Risk Assessment (eRA), this paper aims to enhance the IAEA's nuclear safety principles in order to clarify the distribution of responsibilities for nuclear actors, especially in SMR cases. We articulate what we call the agent-centred presupposition in eRA and apply it to nuclear safety principles using the case of SMRs. We then propose a critique of this approach and suggest further conceptual analysis, which could be suitable for considering SMRs or new reactor designs more generally.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13615027/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149065628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Implications for Care Relationships in Technology-Supported Stroke Rehabilitation: A Qualitative Interview Study.","authors":"Julie Bechtel, Alena Buyx, Bettina M Zimmermann","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00625-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00625-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study explores how technology-supported rehabilitation reshapes the relationships between patients and therapists. Additionally, it examines how empirical findings can inform early design decisions. Qualitative interviews with patients and therapists identified their perceptions of PhysioMio, a wearable sensor-based rehabilitation device that detects muscle activity to monitor rehabilitation progress and enable independent home-based training. Adapting an ethics of care perspective, we focus on the significance of therapeutic relationships when discussing ethical nuances that emerge with the introduction of technology. Our findings show that, while patients value enhanced opportunities for agency and involvement, they do not seek full detachment from therapists. The successful integration of technology into rehabilitation hinges on strong, trust-based relationships, in which therapists take on an expanded role as contextual evaluators. This illustrates that rather than replace physical therapists, technology demands them to assume new roles. While participants generally prioritized purposeful and beneficial data collection over abstract privacy concerns, this acceptance was challenged when monitoring risked shifting therapists' roles toward judging supervisors. Visualizing the rehabilitation process through data raised fears of information overload and sparked mixed reactions regarding motivation and peer comparisons. These insights influenced design choices, including tailoring data granularity to specific purposes and reassessing whether comparative feedback supports or undermines motivation. In conclusion, the ethical use of technology to support recovery and strengthen care relationships must be embedded within trusting therapeutic relationships, and adapted attentively and responsibly to the individual's context, needs, abilities and values.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13534184/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148876403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Language Models as a Challenge for Business Ethics - A Partially Open-Source Approach.","authors":"Patrick Hedfeld","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00620-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00620-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Large language models have become central infrastructures of contemporary digital economies while raising persistent ethical concerns regarding linguistic inequality, opacity, data governance, and the concentration of technological power. Much of the current debate on AI ethics focuses on normative principles such as fairness, transparency, and accountability. While these principles remain essential, they often do not sufficiently explain why ethically problematic outcomes persist under competitive market conditions. This paper addresses that gap by applying Karl Homann's institutional economic ethics to the governance of large language models. From this perspective, ethical deficits in AI development are not merely the result of individual failures of responsibility, but are also shaped by institutional incentive structures that reward speed, scale, proprietary control, and strategic secrecy. The paper analyses three central ethical challenges in LLM development: linguistic and cultural asymmetries, transparency and accountability deficits, and contested practices of data governance and intellectual property. It then argues that the familiar opposition between open and closed AI systems is conceptually and institutionally inadequate. In response, the paper develops the concept of partially open AI governance, understood as a differentiated arrangement of access, disclosure, and oversight across distinct layers of AI systems. Such an approach offers a more realistic way of aligning innovation incentives with ethical and public objectives in the governance of large language models.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13534147/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148876360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Are You Sure This is What You Really Want? Conversational Recommender Systems for Enhancing Human Autonomy.","authors":"Francisco Lara, Juan Ignacio Del Valle","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00619-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00619-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recommender systems are widely used to help users navigate information overload in digital environments. While they are often portrayed as tools that enhance autonomy by optimizing choice and personalizing content, this article argues that many current recommender systems designs in fact undermine user autonomy. Drawing on a conception of autonomy in which the formation and configuration of preferences, particularly higher-level desires in the Frankfurtian sense, play a prominent role, we examine how dominant recommendation techniques shape users' desires and, to a greater extent, their identities. We first analyze what we call conjectural recommenders, systems that infer preferences from behavioral data such as clicks or viewing histories. These systems conflate observed choices with genuine preferences, reinforcing first-order desires, narrowing the diversity of recommendations, and trapping users in homogeneous digital environments that impede identity development and degrade deliberative capacities. We then assess interrogative recommenders, which incorporate explicit user feedback as a form of positive friction in the user interface. Although these recommenders prompt users to articulate evaluations, we argue that they remain insufficient for capturing second-order desires and raise new design challenges concerning paternalism and usability. In response, we propose the Socratic conversational recommender system, a model that combines conversational recommendation with a second layer of Socratic questioning aimed at eliciting users' metapreferences. Rather than prescribing substantive values, the system guides reflection through formal criteria such as coherence, empirical awareness, and cognitive pluralism. The objective is not for the system to discover users' true preferences but to foster their reflective engagement with what they want to want. We conclude that embedding deliberative dialogue within recommender design offers a promising pathway for aligning algorithmic recommendation with the preservation and development of human autonomy.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13658317/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Untold Stories of Future Engineers: Engineering Students' Reflections in a Fiction-Based Ethics Course.","authors":"Sara M Andersson, Eva M Brodin","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00615-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00615-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of micro- and macroethical perspectives remains a challenge in engineering ethics education (EEE). Fiction-based EEE has been advocated as a pedagogical approach that can help students in this regard. However, how students actually use fiction to engage with micro- and macroethics remains underexplored. Therefore, this case study aimed to (1) identify how students' engagement with fictions connected to micro and macro perspectives on engineering and technology ethics, (2) examine how students realized pedagogical potentials of fiction-based pedagogy in this regard, and (3) explore how the outcomes related to the pedagogical framing and activities of the course. The selected case was an elective, fiction-based EEE course, during which the written course work of students, teacher and student interviews, course materials, and data from workshop observations were collected for qualitative analysis. Findings show that several expected pedagogical potentials of fiction-based pedagogy were realized as students reflected on what guides human behavior and on the societal impact of technology, both within and beyond the fictions. However, students' reflections rarely connected to their future professional role. These findings could be related to characteristics of the employed pedagogy and fictions, but also to students' prior knowledge and expectations regarding professional engineering practice. We conclude that students may need targeted support towards connecting fictions with self and profession, and that fiction-based EEE may benefit from recognizing and responding to students' pre-existing expectations on social responsibility and ethical agency in engineering.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13437592/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148671186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence, Clinical Decision-Making, and the Moral Ecology of Care in Africa.","authors":"Kirubel Manyazewal Mussie","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00616-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00616-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly promoted as a tool to enhance clinical decision-making and thus improve the quality of healthcare. While much of the emerging scholarship on AI and healthcare in Africa has focused broadly on opportunities and systemic challenges, what remains underexplored is the specific application of AI to clinical decision-making. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by offering a conceptual and critical analysis of AI-based clinical decision support systems (AI-CDSS) in African contexts. Drawing on philosophical accounts of medical reasoning and relational moral frameworks such as Ubuntu, the paper draws on the moral ecology of care and shows that algorithmic systems can reconfigure epistemic authority, redistribute responsibility, and risk marginalising context-sensitive and relational dimensions of care. The paper further argues that AI systems are better understood as socio-technical mirrors that reflect and amplify existing human values, institutional arrangements, and power asymmetries. Moving beyond the algorithm, it proposes a shift toward relational and context-sensitive AI governance, including the development of relational impact assessments, the redistribution of responsibility across the AI lifecycle, and the co-production of knowledge with local stakeholders. While focusing on African clinical contexts, the analysis offers broader insights for global debates on AI ethics and clinical decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":"32 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13518529/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148834333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Giving Meaning to Technological Artifacts in One's Life: An Aspect of Personal Autonomy in a Technological Society.","authors":"Shinya Oie","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00609-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00609-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In today's world, where advanced technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping human society, how can individuals' autonomy in the use of such technology be understood? This paper focuses on the meanings of technological artifacts in individuals' lives-that is, the subjective interpretation of their function within one's plan for use-and attempts to formalize a set of human capacities to actively give meaning to technological artifacts as a form of personal autonomy. This study shows that this set of capacities includes the capacity to recognize the functions of a given technology, the capacity to plan a practical activity using the technology to achieve a desirable existence, and the capacity to actually conduct the activity. These findings are applied and examined in an example involving the improvement of call center operators' work using AI.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148406654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Not Another Grocery List: Proposals for an Effective AI Ethics Implementation.","authors":"Dominic Martin, Allison Marchildon, Joé T Martineau","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00600-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-026-00600-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Considerable effort has been invested during the last decade to develop ethical frameworks to guide the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Most of these frameworks take the form of an axiomatic list, that is, a list of principles or values taken as self-evident truths. This paper argues these lists face three challenges: divergence within the core principles, structural incoherence, and ethics washing. Three proposals are then put forward to address these challenges and ensure the effective implementation of AI ethics. First, an ethics framework must be parsimonious and, second, a framework building on multiple principles or values must also provide a balancing structure to deal with the different implications of these principles. The third proposal is to envision AI ethics as a process more than a static list of axiomatic principles or values.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148303775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Biopiracy to Sustainable Knowledge Governance: Epistemic Justice and the Reconstruction of Resource Sovereignty in the Global South.","authors":"Qi Dong","doi":"10.1007/s11948-026-00608-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11948-026-00608-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biopiracy represents not merely the exploitation of biological and genetic resources, but a systematic form of epistemic colonialism. This article examines traditional knowledge governance through the lens of epistemic justice and decolonization, integrating Fricker's theory of epistemic injustice, Kuokkanen's concept of relational sovereignty, and Santos's epistemology of the South to construct a three-stage analytical model encompassing \"biopiracy, epistemicide, and knowledge sovereignty reconstruction.\" Through comparative analysis of institutional innovations in India, Brazil, and South Africa, the study reveals structural exclusion mechanisms inherent in Western property paradigms toward indigenous knowledge while demonstrating fundamental flaws in benefit-sharing mechanisms under the Convention on Biological Diversity framework. The article argues that sustainable knowledge governance must be grounded in epistemic pluralism, achieved through restoring indigenous communities' epistemic autonomy, recognizing the normative value of relational sovereignty, and establishing polycentric knowledge ecosystems to facilitate a paradigmatic shift from colonial knowledge orders to post-Western knowledge systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":49564,"journal":{"name":"Science and Engineering Ethics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13500425/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148165278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}