Can Ethics Govern Technology?
Can Ethics Govern Technology?

Bioethics in the Age of Techno-Science

Author(s): Corrado Viafora
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: human habitability; technological environment; deliberative democracy; ethics and techno-science; ethic of responsibility; communicative rationality; reasoning and calculating.
Summary/Abstract: One of the premises behind bioethics is the conviction that ethics cangovern technology. But is this conviction still tenable? In trying to answer thisquestion, we cannot evade the line of thinking inspired by Heidegger that continues tobe wholeheartedly sceptical about the chances of ethics steering technology. Battlingagainst this scepticism, the aim of this chapter is to demonstrate that a differentrelationship between ethics and technology is feasible. This is done by referring on theone hand to Habermas, to debunk the theory that the powerlessness of ethics is anatural necessity, and on the other to Ladrière, to identify the conditions fortechnology to become an element of moral creativity.

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