ARRTI fosters critical reflection amongst KIT students and researchers on their engineering and scientific practices. Our key aim is to render scientific culture from a mere “can do” into a “make do” culture where critical reflection about responsibility is embedded in teaching, research and innovation.
ARRTI understands responsibility in a multi-dimensional way: On the one hand responsibility for ARRTI comprises considerations on global and intergenerational justice and the broader societal and ecological impacts of research and innovation; on the other hand ARRTI fosters a responsibility to address the societal challenges. Instead of a dogmatic stance, ARRTI enables students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to recognize their own responsibility in research and in the transfer of research results and entrepreneurial ideas.
ARRTI endorses an interdisciplinary perspective. Normative and empirical disciplines need to join their respective expertise when we want to successfully address the ethical challenges of our times. Autonomous driving, CRISPR/cas, climate change, renewable energy sources, or life-prolonging medical measures are but a few examples where questions and how we want or how we should live shape disciplinary endeavors. ARRTI also endorses a transdisciplinary perspective as citizens need to be involved in the discourse on technical-ethical issues.