当前位置: X-MOL 学术Ethical Theory and Moral Practice › 论文详情
Our official English website, www.x-mol.net, welcomes your feedback! (Note: you will need to create a separate account there.)
How Do Technologies Affect How We See and Treat Animals? Extending Technological Mediation Theory to Human-animal Relations
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice Pub Date : 2022-06-22 , DOI: 10.1007/s10677-022-10305-9
Koen Kramer, Franck L. B. Meijboom

Human practices in which animals are involved often include the application of technology: some farmed animals are for example milked robotically or monitored by smart technologies, laboratory animals are adapted to specific purposes through the application of biotechnologies, and pets have their own social media accounts. Animal ethicists have raised concerns about some of these practices, but tend to assume that technologies are just neutral intermediaries in human-animal relations. This paper questions that assumption and addresses how technologies might shape human-animal relations in non-neutral ways. Building on the technological mediation approach, it proposes that technologies can influence human-animal relations by amplifying and reducing certain aspects of animals in human perception or by inviting and inhibiting certain actions towards animals. The paper next considers, in two concretizing steps, how this theoretical starting point can enrich ethical discussions on technology and human-animal relations. First, it shows how the technological mediation approach can help to conceptualize a main concern that has been raised regarding the impact of technologies on human-animal relations, namely the concern that animals might be ‘instrumentalized’ or ‘objectified’ in certain technological practices. Second, it considers how this approach can guide investigations of how particular technologies might affect human-animal relations, taking genetic selection technologies as used in livestock breeding as a case. The paper closes by briefly reviewing the prospects and challenges for the application of the technological mediation approach to human-animal relations, thus sketching directions for future research.



中文翻译:

技术如何影响我们看待和对待动物的方式?将技术中介理论扩展到人与动物的关系

涉及动物的人类实践通常包括技术应用:例如,一些养殖动物通过机器人挤奶或通过智能技术进行监控,实验室动物通过应用生物技术适应特定目的,宠物拥有自己的社交媒体账户。动物伦理学家对其中一些做法提出了担忧,但倾向于认为技术只是人类与动物关系中的中立中介。本文对这一假设提出质疑,并探讨了技术如何以非中立的方式塑造人与动物的关系。在技​​术中介方法的基础上,它提出技术可以通过放大减少来影响人与动物的关系动物在人类感知中的某些方面或通过邀请抑制对动物的某些行为。接下来,本文分两个具体步骤考虑这一理论起点如何丰富关于技术和人与动物关系的伦理讨论。首先,它展示了技术中介方法如何帮助概念化一个关于技术对人类与动物关系的影响的主要担忧,即动物在某些技术实践中可能被“工具化”或“客观化”的担忧。其次,它考虑了这种方法如何指导对特定技术如何影响人与动物关系的调查,以牲畜育种中使用的遗传选择技术为例。本文最后简要回顾了将技术调解方法应用于人与动物关系的前景和挑战,

更新日期:2022-06-23
down
wechat
bug