Volume 2, Number 1, 25-38, DOI: 10.1007/s11569-008-0026-yOpen Access

How Should We Do Nanoethics? A Network Approach for Discerning Ethical Issues in Nanotechnology

Ibo van de Poel

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Abstract

There is no agreement on how nanoethics should proceed. In this article I focus on approaches for discerning ethical issues in nanotechnology, which is as of yet one of the most difficult and urging tasks for nanoethics. I discuss and criticize two existing approaches for discerning ethical issues in nanotechnology and propose a network approach as alternative. I discuss debates in nanoethics about the desirable role of ethics in nanotechnological development and about the newness of ethical issues in nanotechnology. On basis of a critical analysis of both debates, I formulate a number of desiderata for a method for discerning ethical issues in nanotechnology and argue that the network approach that my colleagues and I have developed for ethical issues in research and development networks is also appropriate in nanotechnology.

Keywords  Ethical issues - Ethics - Moral methodology - Network analysis - Nanotechnology - Nanoethics - Research and development

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