Distributed Cognition and Distributed Morality: Agency, Artifacts and Systems

Abstract

There are various philosophical approaches and theories describing the intimate relation people have to artifacts. In this paper, I explore the relation between two such theories, namely distributed cognition and distributed morality theory. I point out a number of similarities and differences in these views regarding the ontological status they attribute to artifacts and the larger systems they are part of. Having evaluated and compared these views, I continue by focussing on the way cognitive artifacts are used in moral practice. I specifically conceptualise how such artifacts (a) scaffold and extend moral reasoning and decision-making processes, (b) have a certain moral status which is contingent on their cognitive status, and (c) whether responsibility can be attributed to distributed systems. This paper is primarily written for those interested in the intersection of cognitive and moral theory as it relates to artifacts, but also for those independently interested in philosophical debates in extended and distributed cognition and ethics of (cognitive) technology.

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“…Historically, most of these have focused on the former through the post-hoc analysis of engineering failures from a mostly technical perspective ( [30]). More recently there has been considerable effort to develop more nuanced, philosophically-oriented approaches, or behavioral-psychology approaches to ethics in a society all-but built around techno-science ( [23], [30], [31], [32], [33])), and even more focus on trying to Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2019 URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/60216 ISBN: 978-0-9981331-2-6 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) understand how to understand the problem itself in a world increasingly dependent on full-time access to technologies that themselves reflect ethical dilemmas in our society ( [34], [35], [36], [37], [38]).…”