ABSTRACT
According to a common opinion we human beings, even in the not (yet) industrialised world, live in a technological civilisation and the influence of science and technology is still increasing. Our future, therefore, will be even more permeated by science and technology, and it looks as if there is no alternative. On the other hand, there is a conviction as widespread as the opinion just mentioned that we as human beings have to live and act responsibly, especially in a world increasingly shaped by technology. As the task of philosophy since its very beginnings in ancient Greece has been (and still is) to question opinions and convictions taken for granted, the objective of the following deliberations is to critically scrutinise the development and meaning of both technology and responsibility with respect to their temporal characteristics. In order to do this, I will in a first step reflect on time in general and especially on the future (1). The second step will consist of an ideal-typical reconstruction of the development of technology (2), while the third step will analyse the theoretical framework of the notion of responsibility (3). This then will provide the necessary conceptual background for looking into the pragmatic turn from principle-oriented to applied ethics and thus to human responsibility for extra-human nature which will turn out to be one of the meanings of ‘technofutures’ in the plural tense (4).
