Nanotechnology challenges : implications for philosophy, ethics, and society / editors, Joachim Schummer & Davis Baird.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schummer, Joachim.

Baird, Davis.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nanotechnology--Philosophy.

Nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology--Moral and ethical aspects.

Nanotechnology--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (476 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

River Edge, NJ : World Scientific, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Nanotechnology is an emerging and rapidly growing field whose dynamics and prospects pose many great challenges not only to scientists and engineers but also to society at large. This volume includes the state-of-the-art philosophical, ethical, and sociological reflection on nanotechnology, written by leading scholars from the humanities and social sciences in North America and Europe. It unravels the philosophical underpinnings of nanotechnology, its metaphysical and epistemological foundations, and its conceptual complexity. It explores the ethical issues of nanotechnology, its impact on hu

Contents:

CONTENTS ; Introduction ; Part 1: Philosophical Issues ; I. The Drexler Challenge ; (1) Two Cultures of Nanotechnology? ; (2) The Drexler-Smalley Debate on Nanotechnology Incommensurability at Work? ; II. The Metaphysics of Nanotechnology

(3) Noumenal Technology: Reflections on the Incredible Tininess of Nano (4) Nanotechnology and Nature: On Two Criteria for Understanding their Relationship ; (5) Small but Determined: Technological Determinism in Nanoscience ; III. The Truth of Nanoscopic Images

(6) When is an Image Not an Image ? (7) Changes in the Design of Scanning Tunneling Microscopic Images from 1980 to 1990 ; IV. Dealing with Complexity ; (8) Analyzing the Complexity of Nanotechnology

(9) Nanotechnology: Generalizations in an Interdisciplinary Field of Science and Technology Part 2: Ethical Issues ; V. Social and Environmental Ethics of Nanotechnology ; (10) What Counts as a 'Social and Ethical Issue' in Nanotechnology?

(11) The Promise and Threat of Nanotechnology: Can Environmental Ethics Guide Us? VI. Managing the Risks of Nanotechnology ; (12) Nanosciences and their Convergence with Other Technologies: New Golden Age or Apocalypse?

(13) Living with Uncertainty: Toward the Ongoing Normative Assessment of Nanotechnology

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786611919214

9781281919212

1281919217

9789812773975

9812773975

OCLC:

879074162