With the birth of modern thought, human beings are at the center of ethics as the basic building block of society. The traditional understanding of ethics, also called “human-centered ethics”, places humans at the center of moral decisions, but in recent years there has been a serious break in this perspective. Some thinkers have begun to question this understanding, arguing that humans are not in a privileged position compared to nature and technology. This debate has ceased to be just a debate of ideas and has turned into a situation that affects daily life. At the center of the criticism is the fact that any approach that excludes people will eventually alienate people from themselves and their production.
THE BASIC CRITERIA IS HUMAN
Human-centered ethics refers to the understanding that accepts humans as the basic criterion in determining right and wrong. This understanding was shaped by the influence of philosophers such as René Descartes and Immanuel Kant, who are important figures of modern thought. However, over time, against this basic idea, the view that human beings are not a fixed and privileged being began to come to the fore. Nowadays, these criticisms are rapidly brought to the agenda again with new technological developments.
THOUGHT THAT EXCLUDES PEOPLE
Contemporary thinkers Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway argue that the boundaries between humans, nature and technology are gradually disappearing. This approach is called “posthuman ethics” or “posthumanist ethics”. This approach, which argues that ethics should cover not only humans but also artificial life forms such as robots, has been criticized very sharply. Critics state that this approach would obscure human responsibility and the purpose and meaning of their actions.
WARNING ABOUT SELF-ALIENATION
At the center of these discussions, the concept of “alienation” put forward by Karl Marx comes to the fore again. According to Marx, when a person loses control over the world he produces, he becomes alienated from his own labor, himself and his species. Thinkers such as Herbert Marcuse also emphasize that in modern society, the individual becomes passive within the systems he creates and moves away from his essence. According to research conducted in recent years, this process has become much more visible today.
WHO DETERMS THE ETHICAL LIMIT?
Research on the subject also points out that ethical discussions have economic and political dimensions. The development of large-scale technological systems and social media platforms under the control of a limited number of global business people makes the role of humans in decision-making processes controversial. This situation also raises the question of who determines ethical boundaries and for what purposes. Celebrity who passed away recently As German philosopher Jürgen Habermas points out, technological systems and platforms narrow the collective decision-making processes of societies. American thinker Langdon Winner emphasizes that technology produces political consequences that directly shape society. Another US thinker, Shoshana Zuboff, states that digital systems direct human behavior through large companies, making the question of who determines ethical boundaries even more critical.
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