The Technological Mediation of Morality A Post-Phenomenological Approach to Moral Subjectivity and Moral O bjectivity

This paper analyzes the moral relevance of technological artifac ts and its possible role in ethical theory, by taking the postphenomenological approach that has developed around the wo rk of Don Ihde into the domain of ethics. By elaborating a postphenomenological analysis of the mediating role of ultrasound in moral decisions about abortion, the article argues that technologies embody morality, and help to constitute moral subjectivity. This technological mediation of the moral subject is subsequently addressed in terms of M ichel Foucault’s ethical position, in which ethics is about actively co–shaping one’s moral subjec tivity. Integrating Foucauldian ethics and postphenomenology, the artic le argues that the technological mediation of moral subjec tivity should be at the heart of an ethical approach that takes the moral dimensions of technology seriously.