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Disclaimer: The material herein is developed under NSF-NUE - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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NanoTRA -T exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/ Disclaimer: The material herein is developed under NSF-NUE (Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education)

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exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

Disclaimer: The material herein is developed under NSF-NUE (Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education) award #1242087, NUE: NanoTRA- Texas Regional Alliance to foster 'Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety Awareness' in tomorrow's Engineering and Technology Leaders.

http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242087

This material is developed pursuant to a National Science Foundation grant and is to be used strictly for educational purposes. Developers of the material have used a number of images to enhance understating of various concepts and they are acknowledged accordingly. Any comments

  • r concerns over the use of these images should be directed to
  • Dr. Jitendra S Tate JT31@txstate.edu
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NSF-NUE

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exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

NUE: NanoTRA- Texas Regional Alliance to foster 'Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety Awareness' in tomorrow's Engineering and Technology Leaders.

  • Investigators:

– Dr. Trybula, Walt – Dr. Fazarro, Dominick – Dr. Hanks, Craig – Dr. Tate, Jitendra – Mr. Dutta, Satyajit – Dr. Allhoff, Fritz – Dr. McLean, Robert

  • Students:

– Mr. Alvarez, Andres – Mr. Espinoza, Sergio – Ms. Wilson, Luna – Mr. Mokhtari, Adam

NSF Program Manager: Ms. Mary Poats

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Social, Ethical, Safety and Health Issues in Nanotechnology

MODULE 2A Ethics of Science and Technology

Developed by Dr. Craig Hanks and Ms. Luna K. Wilson For comments please contact at ch25@txstate.edu

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GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

Goal: To introduce students to social and ethical dimensions of science, engineering, and technology. Objectives: Introduce students to:

  • The Impacts of Scientific and Technological Change
  • The Concepts of Moral Agency and Moral

Consequences

  • The Intersection of Engineering and Business
  • The Concepts of Positive and Negative Duties
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PREREQUISITES AND TEXTS

Prerequisites by Topic: None Required Texts (if applicable):

  • Jonas, Hans, “T
  • ward a Philosophy of T

echnology,” Hastings Center Report, (February, 1979), 34-43.

  • Nelson, C, and S.R. Peterson, “If You’re an Engineer, You’re Probably a

Utilitarian,” Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers: Issues in Engineering (1982) 8:1, 13-18.

  • Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard, and Michael J. Rabins, “T

ests in Moral Problem Solving” in Engineering Ethics, Concepts and Cases, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995), 155-187.

  • Drexler, K. Eric, “Three Revolutions and a Fourth,” in Radical Abundance:

How a Revolution in Nanotechnology will Change Civilization,” (New York: Public Affairs, 2013) 39-54.

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and

Change

– Are we facing a fourth technological revolution (Drexler) – The formal and material dimensions of Science, Technology, and Change (Jonas) – False problems with technology (Ellul – notes and PowerPoint) – Why Ethics?

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and

Change

– Why Ethics? – past problems

  • Biomedical – Tuskegee
  • Chemical/Agricultural – DDT
  • Construction – Kansas City Hyatt Regency
  • Aerospace – Challenger
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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture II: Developing an Ethical Framework 1:

– Negative and Positive Duties – Introducing Two Approaches (Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins):

  • Deontology
  • Consequentialism

– Why Engineers are Utilitarians (Nelson and Peterson)

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

Student Learning Outcomes:

  • Be able to explain social and ethical impacts of scientific and technological

change

  • Be able to recognize the ethical dimensions of decisions, actions, and

policies

  • Be able to differentiate between personal values and professional ethics
  • Be able to distinguish between cultural or individual preferences and

ethically relevant situations and practices.

  • Be able to employ major ethical theories – Deontology(Kantian Ethics) and

Utilitarianism/Consequentialism

  • Be able to discuss and debate the ethical dimensions of decisions, actions,

and policies

  • Be able to propose possible solutions to ethical concerns
  • Be able to compare and evaluate differing possible solutions
  • Develop critical thinking skills and judgment
  • Develop an ethical identity to carry forward to working life
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ABET PROGRAM OUTCOMES

Relationship to ABET Program Outcomes:

  • (c) An ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired

needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical constraints as well as considerations of public health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.

  • (f) An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.
  • (g) An ability to communicate effectively.
  • (h) The broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering

solutions in a global economic, environmental, and societal context.

  • (i) A recognition for the need for and an ability to engage in lifelong learning.
  • (j) A knowledge of contemporary issues.
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LECTURE I: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND CHANGE

MODULE 2A: Ethics of Science and Technology

http://www.pascack.k12.nj.us/cms/lib5/NJ 01000238/Centricity/Domain/268/ethics% 20cartoon.png

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Lecture 1: Science, Technology, and Change

  • A Fourth Technological Revolution?

– Humans have experienced three previous revolutions:

  • Agricultural
  • Industrial
  • Information
  • Are we facing a fourth?
  • APM (atomically precise manufacturing) - ie: nanotechnology
  • Will the impact of this revolution be as profound as that of the three

previous ones?

  • Drexler suggests that technological change is a constant for humans.
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TOPICS COVERED

Lecture I: Science, Technology, and Change

  • Hans Jonas: Four structural, or formal, traits of modern

technology

– Technological change tends not toward equilibrium, but toward further change. – Innovation spreads quickly because of a) communications technologies, and b) competition – Technological Means create new ends, new tools open new possibilities for action and new possible goals. – Progress - “the juggernaut moves on relentlessly, spawning its always mutated progeny by coping with the challenges and lures

  • f the now
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  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and

Change

– the formal and material dimensions (Jonas)

  • Contemporary science and technology are restless,

we now constantly and intentionally seek change.

  • This is different from earlier eras of human

existence.

  • This means ever new products and techniques,

changing individual lives, communities, nations, the international community, and nature itself.

  • This also means that change comes to be accepted

as the natural state of human existence, as a taken- for-granted background condition.

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and Change

– Restlessness is thus one of the characteristics of contemporary technological society and of our individual lives and expectations. We now expect change and we wonder what will change next, and in what ways, and this brings hopes and joy as well as fears and threats. – What are some threats posed by science and technology, and by scientific and technological change?

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and Change

– false problems (Ellul – notes and PowerPoint)

  • Jacques Ellul, one of the most important

philosophers of technology, argues that many of the side-effects of technology do not pose any challenge to advancing science and technology, but actually call for increased scientific knowledge (to understand) and increased technology (to fix the problem caused by previous technology).

  • So, for example, pollution can be seen as a side-

effect, and one that new technology will cure.

  • This is one way that a technological system

continually changes

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and Change

– Imperative of Responsibility (Jonas)

  • Contemporary science and technology give humans

unprecedented power – Scope of possible change (entire planet) – Duration of possible change (thousands or even millions

  • f years)

– Distance (we can influence people and processes thousands of miles away, and not directly feel or even know this) – Knowledge (we know more about impacts fo what we do and also about the inter-relatedness of human and natural systems. We also know more about how little we know.)

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and Change

We need an ethical view adequate to this new world WE ARE CREATING. This new ethical view must help us think about our responsibilities. He proposes this Imperative of Responsibility (Jonas): There ought to be through all future time:

  • 1) A world fit for human habitation
  • 2) To be inhabitable by a humankind worthy of the

human name.

http://justsimplyinlove.files.wordpress.com /2011/10/my-evolution-love-world.jpg

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and

Change

  • Why Ethics?
  • Some might ask why ethics is important, or at least

why a scientist or engineer needs to consider ethics.

  • We can find part of the answer by considering past

problems.

  • Engineering processes and products impact the lives of

many people, and often in unpredicted ways. For this reason practitioners need to consider the social and ethical dimensions of their work.

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TOPICS COVERED

  • Lecture I: Science, Technology, and

Change

As we shall see in our next module, engineering can be thought of as a social experiment, and one way to have an experimental control is to look at engineering history.

  • We can find part of the answer by considering past
  • problems. Here is a small sample:
  • Biomedical – Tuskegee
  • Chemical/Agricultural – DDT
  • Construction – Kansas City Hyatt Regency
  • Aerospace – Challenger
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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

  • In a scientific study of the

effects of syphilis over several decades in black populations around Tuskegee in USA sufferers were not properly treated to allow the disease to progress so that the effects could be studied

  • The study was continued

until 1972

The scientific team As part of the study lumbar punctures were made without informed consent

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LECTURE I: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND

CHANGE

Chemical/Agricultural – DDT

Beginning in 1939, DDT was a highly useful insecticide, significantly limiting the spread

  • f Malaria – carried by Mosquitoes.

In 1962, Silent Spring documented how DDT enters the food chain and builds up in fatty tissues, causing cancer and genetic damage.

http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/DDT-Household-Pests- USDA-Mar47a.GIF

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LECTURE I: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND

CHANGE

Construction – Kansas City Hyatt Regency

  • The Kansas City Hyatt Regency was one of the first hotels with an atrium

lobby, and it had multiple suspended walkways. On 17 July, 1981 about 1600 people were watching a dance competition in the lobby, many on the walkways.

  • Because of design and construction flaws, at 7:05 p.m. the 4th floor

walkway collapsed, taking down also the 2nd floor walkway.

  • 114 people died, and 216 others were injured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/ 27/us/27hyatt.html?_r=0 http://www.aia.org/practicing/A IAB095630

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: Aerospace – Challenger

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart after only 73 seconds of

  • flight. All aboard were killed.
  • An O-ring in one of the booster rockets failed.
  • An official report found that the organizational

culture at NASA and decision making processes were to blame.

  • The boosters also contained a design flaw,

partly due to political and economic demands to spread contracts around the country (had the boosters been built close to the launch site, no O- Rings would have been necessary).

  • Engineers analysis of the available data was considered inconclusive about the

risks of launch on a cold January day. This illustrates the importance of framing the correct questions, and also the limits of our fore-knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Challenger_explosion.jpg

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Lecture 2: Developing an Ethical Framework 1:

– Ethics is often concerned with Duty. – Negative and Positive Duties

  • Negative Duty: An obligation NOT to do something.

– Ex: Do no Harm (for a physician). Or, do not deceive consumers about the known consequences of some product.

  • Postive Duty: An obligation TO DO something.

– Ex: Paying taxes, or providing for childhood education.

http://hrconline.blogspot.com/2010/10/fr

  • m-negative-to-positive.html
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ETHICAL THEORIES AND FRAMEWORKS

  • The three most often used ethical theories or

frameworks are:

  • Consequentialism - focus on outcomes
  • Deontological ethics - focus on principles and

reasons

  • Virtue ethics - focus on the character of

persons

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exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

Lecture 2: Developing an Ethical Framework 1:

– Introducing Two Approaches (Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins):

  • Deontology
  • Consequentialism

– Why Engineers are Utilitarians (Nelson and Peterson)

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Lecture 2: Developing an Ethical Framework 1:

  • Deontology
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DEONTOLOGY AND IMMANUEL KANT

Respect for Persons!

  • Autonomy!
  • Rationality!
  • Universalizability!

(or, ethics requires free reasonable moral agents who of their own good will adhere to standards that apply to everyone)

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IMMANUEL KANT: THE GOOD WILL AND THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

  • The Good Will:
  • The only thing valuable “without limitation”

(in all circumstances).

  • A steady disposition to act from duty.
  • Acting from Duty:
  • Not the same as acting in accordance with

duty.

  • Doing one's duty for the sake of doing
  • ne's duty, not in order to serve one's desires.
  • Only actions done from duty have moral

worth.

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Imperatives

  • Hypothetical

– If…then…. – Situation dependent

  • Categorical

– Absolute and unconditional. – Always apply.

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THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will it should become a universal moral law….”

  • A requirement of reason, binding

completely independently of one's desires.

  • Contrasted to a hypothetical imperative, of

the form: If you want x, do y.

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TWO FORMULATIONS OF THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE:

  • Universal law formulation: “Act only in

accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.”

  • Humanity formulation: “So act that you use

humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.”

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UNIVERSALIZE?

  • Reciprocity
  • What if everyone did?
  • Logical Consistency
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Lecture 2: Developing an Ethical Framework 1:

  • Consequentialism

http://blogs.ksbe.edu/anchung/2008/03/07/does-the-end- always-justify-the-means/

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Hedonism: The View that Happiness/Pleasure is the only thing Good For Its Own Sake Pleasure =

 Obtaining Pleasant Sensations  Freedom from Pain and Fear

The only thing people do seek. (descriptive) The only thing people ought to seek. (Normative/Prescriptive)

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Hedonism: Descriptive and Normative

Pleasure

  • Seek pleasure, including seeking new

forms of pleasure and ways of extending

  • pleasure. Maximizing
  • Seek to have obtainable pleasure and

to avoid suffering. Moderating

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  • Descriptive:

– What people actually do or think. – What law or custom actually says. – What IS the case.

  • Normative:

– What people should do. – What the law should be. – What OUGHT to be the case.

http://www.kentvancleave.co m/Evolphi/ethxlg.gif

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JOHN STUART MILL

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Mill's Hedonism (Utilitarianism):

  • All people desire happiness, and nothing but

happiness, as an end in itself. (descriptive claim)

  • There are many desirable things, but all “are

desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain.”

  • Humans are capable of different kinds of

pleasures than other animals. (descriptive)

  • Some kinds of pleasure are more valuable than
  • thers. (normative and descriptive claim)
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THE GREATEST HAPPINESS PRINCIPLE Aka: The Principle of Utility “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”

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Principle of Utility (Greatest Happiness Principle)

An action is right or wrong to the extent that it increases or decreases the total happiness of the affected parties Act Utilitarianism – the principle of utility applied to individual moral action, calculated by the individual on each occasion Rule Utilitarianism – the principle of utility applied to moral rules that if everyone follows that will lead to the greatest increase in happiness

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THE COMPETENT JUDGE TEST

For any two types of pleasures, X and Y:

  • 1. where the competent judges are all those who

are "competently acquainted with both,"

  • 2. if "all or almost all" of the competent judges
  • 3. would not resign their present life, which

contains some of each kind of pleasure, for a life as full as possible of pleasures of type Y, 4 then, pleasures of type X are so qualitatively superior to those of type Y that differences in quantities of the two are irrelevant.

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SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON UTILITARIANISM

  • What is important is that we do the right thing, and
  • ften the right thing is not motivated by our sense
  • f duty.
  • In most cases we need only pay attention to

private utility – the needs and desires of ourselves and those close to us.

  • Expediency is not the same thing as utility
  • Utilitarianism is a kind of Consequentialism – it

says that what is ethically important is getting the right outcome.

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SUMMARY

  • Scientific and Technological Change present

new ethical challenges.

  • Because of the nature of work and decision

making – often within large organizations – notions of moral responsibility are more difficult to understand and apply.

  • Ethicists argue that we have negative duties – to

avoid harm or infringing on rights, and positive duties – to excellence in our work (design, for instance), and to go beyond the minimum.

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SUMMARY

  • Ethical analysis can focus on:

– The consequences of actions.

  • Utilitarianism is one version, the most influential version, of

consequential moral thinking.

– The principle behind and the reasons for an action.

  • Deontology is a moral theory that focuses on doing things for

the right reasons, according to the right principles.

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  • Questions?
  • Drexler claims that the Nano-tech revolution (which he calls APM) will

change the three previous technological revolutions - Agriculture, Industrial and Information. In what ways does he suggest this will happen? How might nanotechnology transform agriculture? Or industry? Or Information Technologies? Can you think of any other possible transformations nanotechnology might bring? What do you think might be some problems or challenges created by nanotechnology? What do you think are likely benefits of nanotechnology?

  • What does Jonas mean when he claims that a fundamental

characteristic of modern technology, and technological society, is restlessness?

  • What does Jonas propose as a new ethical principle? Do you think

this is a good one? Why?

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SLIDE 48

NSF-NUE

Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education

NanoTRA-T

exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

Thought/Discussion Questions?

  • What is a positive duty? Give an example.
  • What is a negative duty? Give an example.
  • What is the primary focus of a consequentialist ethical theory?
  • What is the primary focus of a deontological ethical theory?
  • Can you think of an ethical problem where a consequentialist and a

deontologist might agree? One where they might disagree?

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SLIDE 49

NSF-NUE

Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education

NanoTRA-T

exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

READING ASSIGNMENT for 3A

  • Martin, Mike W. and Roland Schinzinger, “Engineering as Social Experimentation” in Ethics

in Engineering, 2nd Ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1989). 63-104, excerpts.

  • Harris, Charles E. “The Good Engineer: Giving Virtue its Due in Engineering Ethics,”

Science and Engineering Ethics (2008) 14:153-164

  • Warsaw, Jean, “The Trend Towards Implementing The Precautionary Principle In Us

Regulation Of Nanomaterials,” Dose Response. 2012; 10(3): 384–396

  • Professional Codes of Ethics (Select one):

– American Institute of Chemical Engineers – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – ABET (formerly – Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) – American Society of Civil Engineers – American Society of Mechanical Engineers – Society of Manufacturing Engineers – International Council on Systems engineering – National Society of Professional Engineers – Association for Computing Machinery

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SLIDE 50

NSF-NUE

Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education

NanoTRA-T

exas Regional Alliance to Foster Nanotechnology Environment, Health, and Safety http://nsf-nue-nanotra.engineering.txstate.edu/

REFERENCES

1.Jonas, Hans, “Toward a Philosophy of Technology,” Hastings Center Report, (February, 1979), 34-43. 2.Hans Jonas, (1984) The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press). 3.Nelson, C, and S.R. Peterson, “If You’re an Engineer, You’re Probably a Utilitarian,” Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers: Issues in Engineering (1982) 8:1, 13-18. 4.Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard, and Michael J. Rabins, “Tests in Moral Problem Solving” in Engineering Ethics, Concepts and Cases, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995), 155-187. 5.Drexler, K. Eric, “Three Revolutions and a Fourth,” in Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology will Change Civilization,” (New York: Public Affairs, 2013) 39-54. 6.Allhoff, F., Lin, P., Moor, J., Weckert, J., & Roco, M. C. (2007). Nanoethics: The ethical and social implications of nanotechnology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience. 7.Bennett-Woods, D. (2008). Nanotechnology: Ethics and society. Boca Raton, Florida: Taylor and Francis Group