ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that only in conjunction are the concepts of social acceptance and ethical acceptability relevant to the governance of risky technology. It discusses a number of ethical issues that social acceptance studies cannot sufficiently cover. The chapter presents the case of multinational nuclear waste repositories, in order to illustrate the insufficiency of social acceptance studies when assessing the broader ethical impacts of new technologies or technological projects. It considers the existing philosophical discussions of ethical acceptability, arguing that most of these studies are conceptual and lack empirical input. The chapter also presents the Rawlsian Wide Reflective Equilibrium as one possible method for merging empirical social science studies on acceptance with conceptual ethical acceptability analyses. It argues that public acceptance studies most resemble the lower level of considered moral judgments, while ethical acceptability analysis occurs mostly at the top level of moral theory.
