Thinking through Science and Technology

Philosophy, Religion, and Politics in an Engineered World

Glen Miller, Helena Mateus Jerónimo, Qin Zhu

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538176528
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy
• Index: Technology & Engineering

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

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: Possessed by Engineering and Technology
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Editors’ Introduction
• Part I: Philosophy and Technology
• Chapter 2: The Enigma of Technology
• Chapter 3: Organization as Technique: A Blind Spot in the Philosophy of Technology
• Chapter 4: Technology as Process
• Chapter 5: Political Philosophy of Technology: After Leo Strauss
• Chapter 6: The Nuclear Menace and the Prophecy of Doom
• Chapter 7: The End of Technology and the Renewal of Reality
• Part II: Philosophy and Engineering
• Chapter 8: An Engineer Considers Technological (Non)Neutrality: “But Where Are the Values?”
• Chapter 9: How Engineers Can Care from a Distance: Promoting Moral Sensitivity in Engineering Ethics Education
• Chapter 10: Parallel Steps toward Philosophy of Engineering in China and the West
• Chapter 11: The Development of the Philosophy of Engineering in China: Engaging the Scholarship of Carl Mitcham
• Part III: Religion, Science, and Technology
• Chapter 12: Christianity, Power, and Technological Domination: A Typological Approach to the Church
• Chapter 13: Technology in Cosmic Terms: The World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, 1948
• Chapter 14: Beyond Tools, Means, and Ends: Explorations into the Post-Instrumental Erewhon
• Chapter 15: Understanding Bureaucratic Order: The Theological Paradigms of Modern Hierarchy
• Chapter 16: What Religion, What Technology?: A Wittgensteinian Approach
• Chapter 17: Bioethics, Philosophy, and Religious Wisdom: A Critical Assessment of Leon Kass’s Thought
• Part IV: Science and Technology Studies
• Chapter 18: Ethics and the Search for Scientific Knowledge: The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
• Chapter 19: A Short History of Science, Truth, and Politics in the United States, 1945–2021
• Chapter 20: Moral Narratives of Technological Change in the Early Green Revolution
• Chapter 21: Momentum, Interrupted: Developing Habits of Discernment in Engineering and Beyond
• Chapter 22: Innovation Policy Driven by the Market: The Second Great Disembeddedness
• Part V: Science and Technology Policy
• Chapter 23: Irrational Energy Ethics
• Chapter 24: Paradoxical Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women’s Farming, Oil, and Sustainable Development
• Chapter 25: The Pandemic and Clamor for Vaccines: Ethical-Legal Considerations for Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Sharing
• Chapter 26: An Effective History of the Basic-Applied Distinction in “Science” Policy
• Chapter 27: Technological Risks, Institutional Wariness, and the Dynamics of Trust
• About the Contributors
• ‌‌About the Editors‌‌