Nanotechnology, Contingency and Finitude |
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Authors: | Christopher Groves |
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Institution: | (1) ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society, Cardiff University, 55 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK |
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Abstract: | It is argued that the social significance of nanotechnologies should be understood in terms of the politics and ethics of
uncertainty. This means that the uncertainties surrounding the present and future development of nanotechnologies should not
be interpreted, first and foremost, in terms of concepts of risk. It is argued that risk, as a way of managing uncertain futures,
has a particular historical genealogy, and as such implies a specific politics and ethics. It is proposed, instead, that the
concepts of contingency and of finitude must be central to any understanding of the ethical significance of nanotechnologies,
as these concepts can be used to understand the basis of recent work in science and technology studies, and the sociology
of knowledge more widely, which details the multi-dimensional social nature of technological uncertainty.
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Keywords: | Nanotechnology Finitude Indeterminacy Novelty Risk Uncertainty |
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