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This open access book advances a modest defence of technological utopias. While technological utopianism is not devoid of risks and elitism, their benefits should not be discounted in an overall assessment. Rather than rejecting them based on a too narrow definition of utopianism, we must acknowledge their potential to exceed the individualist vs. collectivist dichotomy ascribed to traditional utopias. The author argues, with reference to Rawls' idea of the basic structure that technological utopias challenge our understanding of the scope and location of justice and, thereby, advance the idea of justice. The book critically reviews the most recent literature in political philosophy, where utopias are understood as ideal theories of justice and sides with recent contributions to Utopian Studies, where utopias' potential to estrange from the present and galvanize action are underscored.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Why utopia instead of what utopia.- Chapter 2. Perfectionism, stagnation and transcendental theorizing.- Chapter 3. Technological anti-anti-utopianism.- Chapter 4. How to and where to justice.- Chapter 5. Justice in technological utopia.- Chapter 6. Conclusions.
About the author
Martin Sand is an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at TU Delft and a Board Member of the Delft Young Academy. In 2020, he was a member of the NIAS-Lorentz theme group on “Accountable and Explainable Medical AI” at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. Before, he undertook a two-year project on the topic “Moral Luck in Science and Innovation” as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie-Fellow. Martin obtained his PhD in 2018 with a thesis on “Futures, Visions, and Responsibility-An Ethics of Innovation,” which was completed at the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice, co-editor of the book series Futures ofTechnology, Science and Society and an editorial board member of the journal Philosophy of Management. His work received several prizes and fellowships.
