Right/Wrong

Right/Wrong
Author: Juan Enriquez
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262542811

A lively and entertaining guide to ethics in a technological age. Most people have a strong sense of right and wrong, and they aren't shy about expressing their opinions. But when we take a polarizing stand on something we regard as an eternal truth, we often forget that ethics evolve over time. Many shifts in the right versus wrong pendulum are driven by advances in technology. Our great-grandparents might be shocked by in vitro fertilization; our great-grandchildren might be shocked by the messiness of pregnancy, childbirth, and unedited genes. In Right/Wrong, Juan Enriquez reflects on what happens to our ethics as technology makes the once unimaginable a commonplace occurrence.

The Ethics of Technology

The Ethics of Technology
Author: Martin Peterson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190652276

Autonomous cars, drones, and electronic surveillance systems are examples of technologies that raise serious ethical issues. In this analytic investigation, Martin Peterson articulates and defends five moral principles for addressing ethical issues related to new and existing technologies: the cost-benefit principle, the precautionary principle, the sustainability principle, the autonomy principle, and the fairness principle. It is primarily the method developed by Peterson for articulating and analyzing the five principles that is novel. He argues that geometric concepts such as points, lines, and planes can be put to work for clarifying the structure and scope of these and other moral principles. This geometric account is based on the Aristotelian dictum that like cases should be treated alike, meaning that the degree of similarity between different cases can be represented as a distance in moral space. The more similar a pair of cases are from a moral point of view, the closer is their location in moral space. A case that lies closer in moral space to a paradigm case for some principle p than to any paradigm for any other principle should be analyzed by applying principle p. The book also presents empirical results from a series of experimental studies in which experts (philosophers) and laypeople (engineering students) have been asked to apply the geometric method to fifteen real-world cases. The empirical findings indicate that experts and laypeople do in fact apply geometrically construed moral principles in roughly, but not exactly, the manner advocates of the geometric method believe they ought to be applied.

Science and Technology Governance and Ethics

Science and Technology Governance and Ethics
Author: Miltos Ladikas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2015-01-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319146939

This book analyzes the possibilities for effective global governance of science in Europe, India and China. Authors from the three regions join forces to explore how ethical concerns over new technologies can be incorporated into global science and technology policies. The first chapter introduces the topic, offering a global perspective on embedding ethics in science and technology policy. Chapter Two compares the institutionalization of ethical debates in science, technology and innovation policy in three important regions: Europe, India and China. The third chapter explores public perceptions of science and technology in these same three regions. Chapter Four discusses public engagement in the governance of science and technology, and Chapter Five reviews science and technology governance and European values. The sixth chapter describes and analyzes values demonstrated in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Chapter Seven describes emerging evidence from India on the uses of science and technology for socio-economic development, and the quest for inclusive growth. In Chapter Eight, the authors propose a comparative framework for studying global ethics in science and technology. The following three chapters offer case studies and analysis of three emerging industries in India, China and Europe: new food technologies, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Chapter 12 gathers all these threads for a comprehensive discussion on incorporating ethics into science and technology policy. The analysis is undertaken against the backdrop of different value systems and varying levels of public perception of risks and benefits. The book introduces a common analytical framework for the comparative discussion of ethics at the international level. The authors offer policy recommendations for effective collaboration among the three regions, to promote responsible governance in science and technology and a common analytical perspective in ethics.

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future
Author: Sheila Jasanoff
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2016-08-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0393253856

We live in a world increasingly governed by technology—but to what end? Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by citizens and our elected representatives. In The Ethics of Invention, renowned scholar Sheila Jasanoff dissects the ways in which we delegate power to technological systems and asks how we might regain control. Our embrace of novel technological pathways, Jasanoff shows, leads to a complex interplay among technology, ethics, and human rights. Inventions like pesticides or GMOs can reduce hunger but can also cause unexpected harm to people and the environment. Often, as in the case of CFCs creating a hole in the ozone layer, it takes decades before we even realize that any damage has been done. Advances in biotechnology, from GMOs to gene editing, have given us tools to tinker with life itself, leading some to worry that human dignity and even human nature are under threat. But despite many reasons for caution, we continue to march heedlessly into ethically troubled waters. As Jasanoff ranges across these and other themes, she challenges the common assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Technology, she masterfully demonstrates, can warp the meaning of democracy and citizenship unless we carefully consider how to direct its power rather than let ourselves be shaped by it. The Ethics of Invention makes a bold argument for a future in which societies work together—in open, democratic dialogue—to debate not only the perils but even more the promises of technology.

Encyclopedia of Ethics in Science and Technology

Encyclopedia of Ethics in Science and Technology
Author: Nigel Barber
Publisher:
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2002
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780816043149

Covers the central concepts, people, facts, phenomena, and controversies in the ethics of science and technology, as well as the seminal figures and formative ideas in the two fields.

Ethics and Science

Ethics and Science
Author: Adam Briggle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2012-10-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521878411

This book explores ethical issues at the interfaces of science, policy, religion and technology, cultivating the skills for critical analysis.

Science and Technology Ethics

Science and Technology Ethics
Author: Raymond Spier
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2002
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780415148122

Our world has been radically transformed during the past 200 years with the industrial revolution and development of mass production techniques and recently the plethora of technological advancements in medicine, engineering, computation, communication and entertainment products. These have made major changes in the ways that we live our worlds and in our expectations of the future. Science and Technology Ethicsre-examines the ethics by which we live and asks the question: do we have in place the ethical guidelines through which we can incorporate these developments with the minimum of disruption and disaffection? It assesses the ethical systems in place and proposes new approaches to our scientific and engineering processes and products, our social contracts, biology and informatics, the military industry, and our environmental responsibilities. The volume is multidisciplinary and reflects the aim of the book to promote a state of the art assessment of these issues.

Science and Ethics

Science and Ethics
Author: Bernard E. Rollin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2006-03-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139455044

In Science and Ethics, Bernard Rollin examines the ideology that denies the relevance of ethics to science. Providing an introduction to basic ethical concepts, he discusses a variety of ethical issues that are relevant to science and how they are ignored, to the detriment of both science and society. These include research on human subjects, animal research, genetic engineering, biotechnology, cloning, xenotransplantation, and stem cell research. Rollin also explores the ideological agnosticism that scientists have displayed regarding subjective experience in humans and animals, and its pernicious effect on pain management. Finally, he articulates the implications of the ideological denial of ethics for the practice of science itself in terms of fraud, plagiarism, and data falsification. In engaging prose and with philosophical sophistication, Rollin cogently argues in favor of making education in ethics part and parcel of scientific training.

The Ethics of Technology

The Ethics of Technology
Author: Sven Ove Hansson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2017-03-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1783486597

Our daily lives are affected by new technologies at an ever increasing rate. It is becoming more and more important to assess future technologies from an ethical point of view, and to do this before they are introduced on a massive scale. Such assessments require systematic use of many different kinds of knowledge. In this important new book, an international team of leading experts in the field provides the first comprehensive treatment of the methods available for ethical assessments of technologies and their social introduction. The book explores how information from empirical research can be used in ethical analyses of technology and includes chapters showing how ethical analysis can shed light on topics such as privacy, risk, sustainability, dual use, gender issues, justice, international technology transfer, and the responsibility of engineers. It provides an invaluable resource for students in the philosophy and ethics of technology, science and technology studies, applied ethics, bioethics, business ethics and the ethics of computing.

Ethics of Emerging Technologies

Ethics of Emerging Technologies
Author: Thomas F. Budinger
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2006-04-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

An insightful guide to understanding and navigating the ethical issues faced by anyone affected by the ethical dilemmas associated with current and emerging technologies Ethics of Emerging Technologies provides the background, insight, and tools for approaching and solving ethical dilemmas across a broad range of topics. The text discusses ethical problems, using examples and reasoning tools that will aid engineers, scientists, managers, administrators, and the public who wish to understand risks, benefits, and possible approaches to resolving conflicts associated with new technologies in the context of the global community. Solutions we choose to ethical dilemmas accompanying new technologies will profoundly affect future generations. Scientific facts and guides to decision-making for all associated with emerging technologies are presented. Some of the topics are: Human health and environmental effects of alternative energy production methods Communications and privacy Plagiarism and authorship Genetic modification of organisms Human and animal experimentation Synthetic biology and bioterrorism Confidentiality in science, engineering, and business communications Risks and consequences of enhancing human beings through new technologies Cloning of human beings and stem cell research Brain modifications Space exploration