Digitalization and Societal Change: A Method for the Philosophy and Ethics of Technology for Understanding Technologies within Structural Contexts

Digitalization has profoundly transformed society. As a result, it raises important questions about how people relate to the digital world, which assumptions shape our understanding of digital technologies, and it raises ethical issues. One question that has received little attention in debates concerning digitalization is what this kind of technology has actually changed in society. As humans, we often take for granted the technologies that are familiar to us and how they differ from older technologies. However, such assumptions can be misleading and may lead to problematic expectations, such as the questionable belief that digitalization can solve challenges like climate change. Rather than relying on preconceived ideas about the impact of digitalization, it is therefore important to investigate what has really changed. This dissertation addresses that question through an empirically informed approach. It draws on different ways in which philosophers of technology have used empirical research to develop their understandings of technology throughout the 150-year history of the field.