Philip Brey

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About

Philip Brey is a leading philosopher of technology whose work bridges ethics, social theory, and the philosophy of human-technology relations. His research centers on the moral dimensions of technological artifacts and systems, particularly through his development of "structural ethics"—a framework that expands moral consideration beyond individual agents to include the sociotechnical structures that shape human action and values. In his seminal 2013 paper, "From Moral Agents to Moral Factors: The Structural Ethics Approach," Brey argues that technologies themselves function as moral factors by enabling, constraining, and mediating ethical outcomes, a contribution that has garnered over 40 citations and influenced debates in computer ethics and design ethics. Beyond this, Brey has made foundational contributions to the philosophy of computer ethics, the ethics of emerging technologies (including nanotechnology and AI), and the concept of "disclosure ethics," which calls for revealing the hidden normative assumptions embedded in technology. As a professor at the University of Twente and former president of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology, his work has shaped how scholars and engineers think about responsibility, justice, and human flourishing in an increasingly technological world.