ABSTRACT
Another conceptual di culty is the meaning of the word “ethical” itself. e word itself is not clearly de ned in general usage and is o en equated with “moral,” or the two are mixed in speaking of “ethical, moral issues.” A recently published anthology entitled Nanoethics (Allho et al. 2007) contains despite its title, for example, hardly any chapters on the ethics
13.1 Introduction and Overview .................................................................................................13-1 13.2 Background: Motivations of Nanoethics ...........................................................................13-2
13.5 Conclusions: Future Perspectives of Nanoethics ............................................................13-13 References .........................................................................................................................................13-13
of nanotechnology, but rather chapters on many other socially relevant issues surrounding nanotechnology. Following the philosophical tradition (Rip and Swierstra 2007), we attach great importance to maintaining a strict conceptual distinction between ethics and morality. “Morality” is understood to refer to habitual and customary behavior, values, virtues, rules of behavior, and norms that are actually acknowledged by individuals, groups, or society as a whole. Morals form the totality of the normative orientations governing action and decision making that are recognized and observed in a certain context. “Ethics” refers, in contrast, to the systematic and theoretical re ection on this morality. Such re ection is only required when the acknowledged morality does not provide unambiguous guidance in a speci c situation, for example, if there is a con ict between different moral precepts, or if the problem to be solved is so new that the established moral precepts are inappropriate for providing a solution (a situation that occurs frequently with new forms of technology). In the following, we refer to such a situation as “normative uncertainty.” Ethical re ection serves to overcome normative uncertainty. Normative uncertainty can exist in con- icts, ambiguities, or uncertainty about the moral precept that is regarded “correct” or appropriate in an individual case. In the absence of con icts between interests, values, norms, or rights there is no ethical problem.
