Moral Issues in the Natural Sciences and Technologies

Moral Issues in the Natural Sciences and Technologies PDF Author: Jurie van den Heever
Publisher: AOSIS
ISBN: 1928396844
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
This book reflects academically on important and relevant natural scientific disciplines, important technologies and related media to determine and communicate the moral issues and challenges within those specific fields of study, and how to deal with them morally and from a multidimensional South African context. It aims to add scientific, technological and ethical value, locally and globally, by reflecting mainly from the viewpoint of a specific scholars, writing about the most pressing moral issues or challenges raised by problems within their specific field of study. It is written mainly from a qualitative methodological perspective, including autobiographical and participatory views. The co-authors present in respective chapters their research systematically and intersectionally, based on profound theoretical analysis and reasoning. Current research in the basic and implied sciences and technologies requires sound ethical practice based on a defensible moral stance. Moral norms, in our view, are deeply grounded and evolved convictions about justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and bad. It is not about rules. This scholarly book combines the insights and expertise of established South African scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. The contributors are all deeply committed to the value and validity of science and ethical practice across the moral spectrum. Open and responsible discussions around this topic can lead to the introduction of moral guidelines and regulations to protect the rights of individuals, animals and the environment, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of scientific practice. This collected work, with its very specific and carefully selected grouping of academic fields, aims to innovatively assist in alleviating the shortage of academic publications reflecting on the moral issues in these specific fields.

Moral Issues in the Natural Sciences and Technologies

Moral Issues in the Natural Sciences and Technologies PDF Author: Jurie van den Heever
Publisher: AOSIS
ISBN: 1928396844
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book reflects academically on important and relevant natural scientific disciplines, important technologies and related media to determine and communicate the moral issues and challenges within those specific fields of study, and how to deal with them morally and from a multidimensional South African context. It aims to add scientific, technological and ethical value, locally and globally, by reflecting mainly from the viewpoint of a specific scholars, writing about the most pressing moral issues or challenges raised by problems within their specific field of study. It is written mainly from a qualitative methodological perspective, including autobiographical and participatory views. The co-authors present in respective chapters their research systematically and intersectionally, based on profound theoretical analysis and reasoning. Current research in the basic and implied sciences and technologies requires sound ethical practice based on a defensible moral stance. Moral norms, in our view, are deeply grounded and evolved convictions about justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and bad. It is not about rules. This scholarly book combines the insights and expertise of established South African scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. The contributors are all deeply committed to the value and validity of science and ethical practice across the moral spectrum. Open and responsible discussions around this topic can lead to the introduction of moral guidelines and regulations to protect the rights of individuals, animals and the environment, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of scientific practice. This collected work, with its very specific and carefully selected grouping of academic fields, aims to innovatively assist in alleviating the shortage of academic publications reflecting on the moral issues in these specific fields.

Nanoethics

Nanoethics PDF Author: Donal P. O'Mathuna
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441149171
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Nanotechnology manipulates matter at the atomic level. It leads to innovative processes and products that are revolutionizing many areas of modern life. Huge amounts of public funds are being invested in the science, yet the public has little understanding of the technology or its ethical implications. Indeed, the ethical, social, and political dimensions of nanotechnology are only beginning to receive the attention they require - outside of science fiction contexts. Surveillance devices may become so small that they are practically invisible to the naked eye, raising concerns about privacy. Nanomedicine may lead to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic devices, yet anxieties have been raised about the impact of "nanobots" circulating in our bodies. Military applications, or misuses, of nanotechnology raise other concerns. This book explores in an accessible and informative way how nanotechnology is likely to impact the lives of ordinary people in the coming years and why ethical reflection on nanotechnology is needed now.

Communicating Science Effectively

Communicating Science Effectively PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309451051
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will be most effective for specific audiences and circumstances are not obvious. Fortunately, there is an expanding science base from diverse disciplines that can support science communicators in making these determinations. Communicating Science Effectively offers a research agenda for science communicators and researchers seeking to apply this research and fill gaps in knowledge about how to communicate effectively about science, focusing in particular on issues that are contentious in the public sphere. To inform this research agenda, this publication identifies important influences â€" psychological, economic, political, social, cultural, and media-related â€" on how science related to such issues is understood, perceived, and used.

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future

The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future PDF Author: Sheila Jasanoff
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393253856
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
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.

Moral Issues in the Natural Science and Technologies

Moral Issues in the Natural Science and Technologies PDF Author: Chris Jones
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781928396833
Category : Applied ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book reflects academically on important and relevant natural scientific disciplines, important technologies and related media to determine and communicate the moral issues and challenges within those specific fields of study, and how to deal with them morally and from a multidimensional South African context. It aims to add scientific, technological and ethical value, locally and globally, by reflecting mainly from the viewpoint of a specific scholars, writing about the most pressing moral issues or challenges raised by problems within their specific field of study. It is written mainly from a qualitative methodological perspective, including autobiographical and participatory views. The co-authors present in respective chapters their research systematically and intersectionally, based on profound theoretical analysis and reasoning. Current research in the basic and implied sciences and technologies requires sound ethical practice based on a defensible moral stance. Moral norms, in our view, are deeply grounded and evolved convictions about justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and bad. It is not about rules. This scholarly book combines the insights and expertise of established South African scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. The contributors are all deeply committed to the value and validity of science and ethical practice across the moral spectrum. Open and responsible discussions around this topic can lead to the introduction of moral guidelines and regulations to protect the rights of individuals, animals and the environment, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of scientific practice. This collected work, with its very specific and carefully selected grouping of academic fields, aims to innovatively assist in alleviating the shortage of academic publications reflecting on the moral issues in these specific fields

Moral Issues in the Natural Science and Technologies

Moral Issues in the Natural Science and Technologies PDF Author: Chris Jones
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781928396857
Category : Applied ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book reflects academically on important and relevant natural scientific disciplines, important technologies and related media to determine and communicate the moral issues and challenges within those specific fields of study, and how to deal with them morally and from a multidimensional South African context. It aims to add scientific, technological and ethical value, locally and globally, by reflecting mainly from the viewpoint of a specific scholars, writing about the most pressing moral issues or challenges raised by problems within their specific field of study. It is written mainly from a qualitative methodological perspective, including autobiographical and participatory views. The co-authors present in respective chapters their research systematically and intersectionally, based on profound theoretical analysis and reasoning. Current research in the basic and implied sciences and technologies requires sound ethical practice based on a defensible moral stance. Moral norms, in our view, are deeply grounded and evolved convictions about justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and bad. It is not about rules. This scholarly book combines the insights and expertise of established South African scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. The contributors are all deeply committed to the value and validity of science and ethical practice across the moral spectrum. Open and responsible discussions around this topic can lead to the introduction of moral guidelines and regulations to protect the rights of individuals, animals and the environment, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of scientific practice. This collected work, with its very specific and carefully selected grouping of academic fields, aims to innovatively assist in alleviating the shortage of academic publications reflecting on the moral issues in these specific fields

Moralizing Technology

Moralizing Technology PDF Author: Peter-Paul Verbeek
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226852903
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Technology permeates nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Cars enable us to travel long distances, mobile phones help us to communicate, and medical devices make it possible to detect and cure diseases. But these aids to existence are not simply neutral instruments: they give shape to what we do and how we experience the world. And because technology plays such an active role in shaping our daily actions and decisions, it is crucial, Peter-Paul Verbeek argues, that we consider the moral dimension of technology. Moralizing Technology offers exactly that: an in-depth study of the ethical dilemmas and moral issues surrounding the interaction of humans and technology. Drawing from Heidegger and Foucault, as well as from philosophers of technology such as Don Ihde and Bruno Latour, Peter-Paul Verbeek locates morality not just in the human users of technology but in the interaction between us and our machines. Verbeek cites concrete examples, including some from his own life, and compellingly argues for the morality of things. Rich and multifaceted, and sure to be controversial, Moralizing Technology will force us all to consider the virtue of new inventions and to rethink the rightness of the products we use every day.

The Moral Landscape

The Moral Landscape PDF Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143917122X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith--that a moral system cannot be based on science.

Science and Babies

Science and Babies PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309041368
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.

Dangerous Science

Dangerous Science PDF Author: Daniel J. Rozell
Publisher: Ubiquity Press
ISBN: 1911529897
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
The public is generally enthusiastic about the latest science and technology, but sometimes research threatens the physical safety or ethical norms of society. When this happens, scientists and engineers can find themselves unprepared in the midst of an intense science policy debate. In the absence of convincing evidence, technological optimists and skeptics struggle to find common values on which to build consensus. The best way to avoid these situations is to sidestep the instigating controversy by using a broad risk-benefit assessment as a risk exploration tool to help scientists and engineers design experiments and technologies that accomplish intended goals while avoiding physical or moral dangers. Dangerous Science explores the intersection of science policy and risk analysis to detail failures in current science policy practices and what can be done to help minimize the negative impacts of science and technology on society.