ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the moral value positions and discusses how to deal with those. It looks at a recent technological development, nanotechnology. The chapter presents an example that demonstrates how people react to issues about which they have no, or very little, knowledge. Nanoparticles are ultra-small particles on a scale of a billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology is controversial because there is some evidence that exposure to those ultra-small particles can have harmful effects on our health. Emotionally laden views, especially when they are morally charged, tolerate little or no opposition. Moral opinions and views in particular are firmly anchored in a person’s self and very difficult to change. Other or opposing views are considered as not belonging to ourselves, and thus inferior. Moral opinions often have an impervious character, and people are inclined to withdraw themselves from each other and to entrench themselves in their own bastion together with like-minded individuals.
