About the Book
Groundbreaking in its range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds, Thinking through Science and Technology explores how individual and societal beliefs, values, and actions are transformed by science, technology, and engineering. Practical and theoretical insights from philosophers, policymakers, STS scholars, and engineers illuminate the promise, perils, and paradoxes that arise with technoscientific change. This collection of original research develops a philosophical understanding of technology and its inscription in a wider web of social and political meanings, values, and civilizational change. It explores foundational beliefs at the core of engineering education and practice, with an emphasis on the movement of ideas between Western and Chinese scholars, as well as the complex interwoven relationship between ideas from religion, science, and technology as they have evolved in the West. Contributors also critically examine the forces and frameworks that shape the development and evaluation of scientific practice and the innovation and adoption of technology, with an emphasis on national and global policy. The volume offers a critical and timely reflection on science and technology that counters trends toward technological optimism, on the one hand, and disciplinary and cultural regionalization, on the other. Chapters written by prominent and promising scholars from around the world make this a global resource; its breadth and clarity make it a superb introduction for those new to its fields. It serves as an essential reference for established scholars as well as anyone seeking a more comprehensive understanding of social and technoscientific entanglements that permeate contemporary life.
List of contributors: Gordon Akon-Yamga, Jennifer Karns Alexander, Andoni Alonso, Pamela Andanda, Larry Arnhart, Li Bocong, Albert Borgmann, Adam Briggle, Jose A. López Cerezo, Mark Coeckelbergh, Daniel Cérézuelle, Neelke Doorn, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Andrew Feenberg, Jose Luís Garcia, Tricia Glazebrook, Janna van Grunsven, J. Britt Holbrook, Helena Jerónimo, Tong LI, Yongmou LIU, Lavinia Marin, Glen Miller, Carl Mitcham, Suzanne Moon, Byron Newberry, Jean Robert, Sabine Roeser, Taylor Stone, Sajay Samuel, Daniel Sarewitz, Jen Schneider, José Antonio Ullate, Carlos Verdugo-Serna, Nan WANG.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Carl Mitcham
Preface
Glen Miller, Helena Mateus Jerónimo, and Qin Zhu
Chapter 1: Editors' Introduction
Glen Miller, Helena Mateus Jerónimo, and Qin Zhu
Part I: Philosophy and Technology
Ch 2: The Enigma of Technology
Andrew Feenberg
Chapter 3: Organization as Technique: A Blind Spot in the Philosophy of Technology
Daniel Cérézuelle, translation by Christian Roy
Chapter 4: Technology as Process
Mark Coeckelbergh
Chapter 5: Political Philosophy of Technology: After Leo Strauss
Carl Mitcham
Chapter 6: The Nuclear Menace and the Prophecy of Doom
Jean-Pierre Dupuy
Chapter 7: The End of Technology and the Renewal of Reality
Albert Borgmann
Part II: Philosophy and Engineering
Chapter 8: An Engineer Considers Technological (Non)Neutrality: “But Where Are the Values?
Byron Newberry
Chapter 9: How Engineers Can Care from a Distance: Promoting Moral Sensitivity in Engineering Ethics Education
Janna van Grunsven, Lavinia Marin, Taylor Stone, Sabine Roeser & Neelke Doorn
Chapter 10: Parallel Steps toward Philosophy of Engineering in China and West
Nan WANG and LI Bocong
Chapter 11: The Development of the Philosophy of Engineering in China: Engaging the Scholarship of Carl Mitcham
Tong LI and Yongmou LIU
Part III: Religion, Science, and Technology
Chapter 12: Christianity, Power, and Technological Domination: A Typological Approach to the Church
José Antonio Ullate
Chapter 13: Technology in Cosmic Terms: The World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, 1948
Jennifer Karns Alexander
Chapter 14: Beyond Tools, Means, and Ends: Explorations into the Post-Instrumental Erehwon
Jean Robert
Chapter 15: Understanding Bureaucratic Order: The Theological Paradigms of Modern Hierarchy
Sajay Samuel
Chapter 16: What Religion, What Technology? A Wittgensteinian Approach
Andoni Alonso
Chapter 17: Bioethics, Philosophy, and Religious Wisdom: A Critical Assessment of Leon Kass’s Thought
Larry Arnhart
Part IV: Science and Technology Studies
Chapter 18: Ethics and the Search for Scientific Knowledge: The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
Carlos Verdugo-Serna
Chapter 19: A Short History of Science, Truth, and Politics in the United States, 1945–2021
Daniel Sarewitz
Chapter 20: Moral Narratives of Technological Change in the Early Green Revolution
Suzanne Moon
Chapter 21: Momentum, Interrupted: Developing Habits of Discernment in Engineering and Beyond
Jen Schneider
Chapter 22: Innovation Policy Driven by the Market: The Second Great Disembeddedness
José Luís Garcia
Part V: Science and Technology Policy
Chapter 23: Irrational Energy Ethics
Adam Briggle
Chapter 24: Paradoxical Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women’s Farming, Oil, and Sustainable Development
Tricia Glazebrook and Gordon Akon-Yamga
Chapter 25: The Pandemic and Clamor for Vaccines: Ethical-Legal Considerations for Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Sharing
Pamela Andanda
Chapter 26: An Effective History of the Basic-Applied Distinction in “Science” Policy
J. Britt Holbrook
Chapter 27: Technological Risks, Institutional Wariness, and the Dynamics of Trust
José A. López Cerezo
About the Contributors
Index
About the Editors
