ITeG lecture series: "More freedom, but also more heteronomy? Reflections on a concept of 'digital self-determination' "

In the ITeG lecture series "Digital society - a design task" on November 16, 2022, Dr. phil. Marcel Mertz will provide insights on the topic "More freedom, but also more heteronomy? Reflections on a concept of 'digital self-determination' ".

Marcel Mertz heads the "Research/Public Health Ethics and Methodology" working group at the Institute of Ethics, History and Philosophy of Medicine at Hannover Medical School. He currently coordinates the working group "Ethics and Empiricism" of the Academy for Ethics in Medicine e.V. (AEM) and is one of the spokespersons of CELLS MHH.

Summary of his presentation:
Today, digital systems enable freedoms that would hardly have been possible in the past. We can now order goods from the comfort of our sofa at any time of day, read the newspaper, quickly look something up on Wikipedia, be entertained in a variety of ways and share our lives with thousands of people on social media. We can communicate with each other via WhatsApp, Telegram and the like, track every step we take or have our bodily functions measured around the clock - if we want to.

But is it really that easy? To what extent can we still escape these "freedoms" - either because we are becoming more and more dependent on such systems and services, or because something has now become possible and desirable that would have been unthinkable in the past (such as constantly measuring ourselves in order to live healthier lives)? Moreover, since the concrete design of these "freedoms" is rarely (co-)determined by oneself, the question arises as to what self-determination could mean in this context. The presentation will therefore propose a concept of "digital self-determination", which is linked back to general philosophical considerations of self-determination and identifies seven components of digital self-determination (competence, informedness, values, choice, voluntariness, decision-making and action).
In addition to the limitations of the concept, examples of possible empirical operationalization will also be discussed.

The lectures will take place online (via Zoom). The link for the Zoom meeting and the meeting ID can be found on the following website: www.uni-kassel.de/go/iteg-lectures