Sjoerd D. Zwart

The Problem of Many Hands: Climate Change as an Example

In some situations in which undesirable collective effects occur, it is very hard, if not impossible, to hold any individual reasonably responsible. Such a situation may be referred to as the problem of many hands. In this paper we investigate how the problem of many hands can best be understood and why, and when, it exactly constitutes a problem. After analyzing climate change as an example, we propose to define the problem of many hands as the occurrence of a gap in the distribution of responsibility that may be considered morally problematic. Whether a gap is morally problematic, we suggest, depends on the reasons why responsibility is distributed. This, in turn, depends, at least in part, on the sense of responsibility employed, a main distinction being that between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility.

Reflective Equilibrium in R & D Networks

In this article, we develop an approach for the moral assessment of research and development (R & D) networks on the basis of the reflective equilibrium approach proposed by Rawls and Daniels. The reflective equilibrium approach aims at coherence between moral judgments, principles, and background theories. We use this approach because it takes seriously the moral judgments of the actors involved in R & D, whereas it also leaves room for critical reflection about these judgments. It is shown that two norms, namely reflective learning and openness and inclusiveness, which are used in the literature on policy and technological networks, contribute to achieving a justified overlapping consensus. We apply the approach to a case study about the development of an innovative sewage treatment technology and show how in this case the two norms are or could be instrumental in achieving a justified overlapping consensus on relevant moral issues.

A semantics for means-end relations

There has been considerable work on practical reasoning in artificial intelligence and also in philosophy. Typically, such reasoning includes premises regarding means–end relations. A clear semantics for such relations is needed in order to evaluate proposed syllogisms. In this paper, we provide a formal semantics for means–end relations, in particular for necessary and sufficient means–end relations. Our semantics includes a non-monotonic conditional operator, so that related practical reasoning is naturally defeasible. This work is primarily an exercise in conceptual analysis, aimed at clarifying and eventually evaluating existing theories of practical reasoning (pending a similar analysis regarding desires, intentions and other relevant concepts).

An impossibility theorem for verisimilitude

In this paper, we show that Arrow’s well-known impossibility theorem is instrumental in bringing the ongoing discussion about verisimilitude to a more general level of abstraction. After some preparatory technical steps, we show that Arrow’s requirements for voting procedures in social choice are also natural desiderata for a general verisimilitude definition that places content and likeness considerations on the same footing. Our main result states that no qualitative unifying procedure of a functional form can simultaneously satisfy the requirements of Unanimity, Independence of irrelevant alternatives and Non-dictatorship at the level of sentence variables. By giving a formal account of the incompatibility of the considerations of content and likeness, our impossibility result makes it possible to systematize the discussion about verisimilitude, and to understand it in more general terms.

Values in engineering models: social ramifications of modeling in engineering design

We discuss whether, and if so, in which ways, engineering models are value-laden. In doing so, we propose to distinguish between ‘embedded values’, which are values built into the model, be it intentionally or unintentionally, and ‘implied values’ which are value-laden consequences of the intended use of the models. We present six examples of engineering models and discuss in which ways they are value-laden. On the basis of our empirical material, we elaborate on two mechanisms by which models can become value-laden: indeterminacy of models and the reduction of complexity in modeling.

Ethics in Innovation: Cooperation and Tension

An ethical parallel study has been carried out during the development of a new technology for wastewater treatment. Different aspects of the network involved in this innovation were studied. These include the inventory of the network, the risks in implementation of the technology foreseen by the different actors in the network and the responsibility for ethical issues, in particular the risks of the technology. Participating in a parallel study made the ethicists part of the network and influenced the discussions in the network, which indirectly affected the direction of the research. In this contribution the researchers reflect on the influence of the ethical parallel study on the innovation itself and on the proper role of ethicists in ethical parallel research.

Scale Modelling in Engineering: Froude's Case

Publisher Summary This chapter addresses questions about the foundations of scale modeling and related philosophical problems. Engineers have employed scaling practices since time immemorial, long before scaling methods based on dimensionless numbers were introduced. When building sacred edifices, palaces, vessels and the machinery of war in ever-increasing sizes, engineers were compelled to discover how to reliably scale artifacts up or down. Engineers were soon to discover that Euclidean geometry was insufficient when it came to reliably scaling artifacts as it does not consider forces. If a boat is scaled up ten times in the three Euclidean dimensions, then the resulting artifact will be much too weak for practical purposes. In Froudes time, the theory of scale modeling was known, in good Euclidean tradition, as the theory of similarity or similitude. Since Froude is the founding father of “scientific” scaling, his endeavors may constitute a good place to start the search for the scientific basis of scale modeling. Traditionally, this basis is taken to be dimensional analysis, but nowhere in his writings does Froude mention or carry out any analysis of dimensions.

Methodological Classification of Innovative Engineering Projects

In this chapter we report on and discuss our empirical classification of innovative engineering projects. Basic innovative engineering projects are characterized by their overall goal and accompanying method. On the basis of this goal and method, we classify engineering projects as all falling in one of the following categories: (1) Descriptive knowledge as prevalent in the descriptive sciences; (2) Design of artefacts and processes; (3) Engineering Means-end knowledge; (4) Modeling (simulation serious gaming included); (5) Engineering optimization; and (6) Engineering mathematics. These categories are illustrated with examples drawn from our educational experiences. Formally our classification system is a partition: the categories are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Regarding its empirical power, we claim intra-departmental completeness for the projects that we have studied at the Departments of Mechanics and Applied Physics of Delft University of Technology; we hypothesize intra-academic completeness within Universities of Technology; and we hope for and encourage investigating extra-academic completeness regarding engineering in industry. Besides having significant consequences for the methodology of the engineering sciences, our categorization provides a new way to study empirically the relation between science and technology.

Substantive and procedural contexts of engineering design

Kroes and Van de Poel (Problematizing the notion of social context of technology. In S. H. Christensen, B. Delahousse, & M. Meganck (Eds.), Engineering in context (pp. 61–74). Aarhus: Academica, 2009) maintain that distinguishing between technology and its social (intentional) context is impossible, because social phenomena are definitive (constitutive) for technology. This raises the problem of differentiating between the social processes that are internal (definitive) and those that are external (contextual) to technology. To explore this problem we distinguish instead between the core and the context of design as object and as process, and we apply them to a case study of the design and development of a new technology for sewage water treatment to find out whether these distinctions make sense in real life engineering practice. Despite the in abstracto plausibility of this distinction between core and context, our analysis reveals that its application may turn out to be very problematic in actual engineering practices. The same holds for characterizing particular design features as being the result of either internal (technological) or external (social) factors.

The Hidden Variable

I will discuss the alleged “language-dependency” of truthlikeness definitions in this chapter. When I introduced the differences between content and likeness definitions in the first chapter, I briefly mentioned the possible change of a truthlikeness order after extensional substitutions. Now it is time to present and examine Miller’s objection to truthlikeness definitions.1 This chapter has the following outline. After the introduction, in Section 5.2 I introduce Miller’s puzzle and describe the reactions it provoked. In Section 5.3 I will discuss the formal analysis of the translation puzzle; and in the fourth section I formulate the solution. I end the chapter with a summary and a list of results.