John Forge considers the moral dilemma of the weapons designer.
>>Here is the dilemma: Weapons research produces
in the first place not guns, bombs, bullets and
planes and the various command, control and
communications hardware and software needed to
use these things, but plans, blueprints and
designs knowledge and know-how. Unless these
useful plans are lost or destroyed, they can be
implemented or instantiated many times over, and
thus project unforeseen into the future.
The AK 47 design, as opposed to the individual
weapons, wont wear out; and providing the
materials and skills are available, they can be
made at any time in the future. The weapons
design with the most longevity that I know of is
the onager, the one-armed catapult used at the
siege of Syracuse under the direction of
Archimedes in 212 BCE and invented some centuries
earlier. Aficionados still build onagers from the
original plans. Now suppose that J, a weapons
researcher, designs a weapon because her country
is in dire threat from a wicked invader: there
are many examples of this, from Archimedes to
Watson-Watt the inventor of radar, and beyond.
But when the emergency has passed and there is no
longer just cause for using the weapon, J's
invention is used in other circumstances which
she does not condone, such as an unjust war.
There is a moral dilemma here for the following
reasons. I assume that J is a moral person and
hence does not want to do harm unless she has
sufficient justification. The imminent likelihood
that an aggressor will destroy her family,
country and way of life is surely sufficient
justification. But the weapon design persists
into the future, and once out of J's control can
be used for unjustifiable harms. What should J
do? And is this really a general problem, or one
that only worries Kalashnikov?<<
<http://www.philosophynow.org/issue59/59forge.htm>Link
posted by
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2007/01/no-consolation-for-kalashnikov.htm>johannes,
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
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