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33The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield International. 2017.This book provides students with a toolbox for the study of the ethics of technology, exploring the methods available for ethical assessments of technologies and their social introduction. An international team of leading experts in the field provides the first comprehensive treatment of the topic, including case studies and annotated further reading.
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4Technology, Prosperity and RiskIn Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen Friis, Stig Andur Pedersen & Vincent F. Hendricks (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Technological Risks Future Technology Dealing with Technological Uncertainty How Special Is Technology? References and Further Reading.
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163The Harmful Influence of Decision Theory on EthicsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 13 (5): 585-593. 2010.In the last half century, decision theory has had a deep influence on moral theory. Its impact has largely been beneficial. However, it has also given rise to some problems, two of which are discussed here. First, issues such as risk-taking and risk imposition have been left out of ethics since they are believed to belong to decision theory, and consequently the ethical aspects of these issues have not been treated in either discipline. Secondly, ethics has adopted the decision-theoretical idea …Read more
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41The modes of valuePhilosophical Studies 104 (1). 2001.Contrary to the received view, decision theory is not primarily devoted to instrumental (ends-to-means) reasoning. Instead, its major preoccupation is the derivation of ends from other ends. Given preferences over basic alternatives, it constructs preferences over alternatives that have been modified through the addition of value object modifiers (modes) that specify probability, uncertainty, distance in time etc. A typology of the decision-theoretical modes is offered. The modes do not have (ev…Read more
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86Uncertainty and the ethics of clinical trialsTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (2): 149-167. 2006.A probabilistic explication is offered of equipoise and uncertainty in clinical trials. In order to be useful in the justification of clinical trials, equipoise has to be interpreted in terms of overlapping probability distributions of possible treatment outcomes, rather than point estimates representing expectation values. Uncertainty about treatment outcomes is shown to be a necessary but insufficient condition for the ethical defensibility of clinical trials. Additional requirements are propo…Read more
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97The Structure of Values and NormsCambridge University Press. 2001.Formal representations of values and norms are employed in several academic disciplines and specialties, such as economics, jurisprudence, decision theory and social choice theory. Sven Ove Hansson closely examines such foundational issues as the values of wholes and the values of their parts, the connections between values and norms, how values can be decision-guiding and the structure of normative codes with formal precision. Models of change in both preferences and norms are offered, as well …Read more
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29The Moral Oracle’s TestEthical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (4): 643-651. 2014.When presented with a situation involving an agent’s choice between alternative actions, a moral oracle says what the agent is allowed to do. The oracle bases her advice on some moral theory, but the nature of that theory is not known by us. The moral oracle’s test consists in determining whether a series of questions to the oracle can be so constructed that her answers will reveal which of two given types of theories she adheres to. The test can be applied to moral theories in order to determin…Read more
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1Twelve theses on the use of logic in moral philosophyJournal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research 27 (2). 2010.Logic is a useful tool in moral philosophy, since it provides us with precise tools to study the structure of moral concepts and moral argumentation. Twelve theses on the use of logic in moral philosophy are put forward, emphasizing the possibilities but also pointing out some of the pitfalls.
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756The purpose of this presentation is to introduce both the concept of risk and the precautionary principle, that is a major policy principle in present-day risk management. Since risk has been the subject of many misconceptions I will do this in large part by criticizing seven views on risk that I believe to have caused considerable confusion both among scientists and policy-makers. But before looking at the seven myths of risk, let us begin with the basic issue of defining “risk”. The word “risk…Read more
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30Similarity semantics and minimal changes of beliefErkenntnis 37 (3): 401-429. 1992.Different similarity relations on sets are introduced, and their logical properties are investigated. Close relationships are shown to hold between similarity relations that are based on symmetrical difference and operators of belief contraction that are based on relational selection functions. Two new rationality criteria for minimal belief contraction, the maximizing property and the reducing property, are proposed
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Review of Peter T. Manicas: A history and philosophy of the social sciences (review)Theoria 54 (2): 148. 1988.
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14Some Solved and Unsolved Remainder EquationsMathematical Logic Quarterly 41 (3): 362-368. 1995.The remainder set A⟂B of a set of sentences A modulo a set of sentences B is the set of all maximal subsets of A not implying any element of B. A remainder equation is an expression containing remainder sets, such as {A} = B⟂X, in which at least one set is unknown. Solutions to some classes of remainder equations are reported, and some unsolved problems are listed
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64Specified Meet ContractionErkenntnis 69 (1): 31-54. 2008.Specified meet contraction is the operation defined by the identity where ∼ is full meet contraction and f is a sentential selector, a function from sentences to sentences. With suitable conditions on the sentential selector, specified meet contraction coincides with the partial meet contractions that yield a finite-based contraction outcome if the original belief set is finite-based. In terms of cognitive realism, specified meet contraction has an advantage over partial meet contraction in that…Read more
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Science and Technology: What They Are and Why Their Relation MattersIn Sven Ove Hansson (ed.), The Role of Technology in Science: Philosophical Perspectives, Springer Verlag. 2015.
Areas of Specialization
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Areas of Interest
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