Bøger i Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment serien

This book analyses the concept of disease, as defined in the context of evolutionary medicine. Upon introducing the reader to evolutionary medicine in its current form and describing its approach to disease instances, the book leverages thoughts and instruments of knowledge of epistemology, social sciences, and ethics to answer the question: ¿How can we build a timely and appropriate concept of disease?¿ At first, it looks at the social concerns of medicalization, for example focusing on the suffering of people who have not been diagnosed, or whose suffering is not caused by certain elements that falls under the definitions of disease. In turn, it merges different, both conceptual and empirical considerations in one comprehensive analysis, with the aim of fostering a multidisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon of disease. This book also highlights certain kinds of epistemic injustices that are taking place in the healthcare system, as this is currently conceived in post-industrial societies, thus offering a timely contribution to the current debate around social justice in healthcare.

Der Band widmet sich der Frage, wer verantwortlich ist für einen ethisch angemessenen Umgang mit Energie. Dazu sollen zunächst in einem ersten Schritt die normativen Grundlagen von Energieverantwortung skizziert werden. In einem zweiten Schritt werden mögliche Spannungsfelder identifiziert, die in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Dimensionen bestehen. In einem abschließenden dritten Schritt wird die Perspektive auf Probleme erweitert, die durch die Implementierung energieverantwortlicher Maßnahmen und Bestrebungen entstehen. So leistet der Band eine Ordnung der Fragen rund um Energieverantwortung sowie die Darstellung, Bewertung und Lösung konkreter Handlungsprobleme im Feld der Energie-Nachhaltigkeit.

Dieses Buch ist eine Open Access Publikation.Der lange gehegte Traum von künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) wird in unserer Alltagswelt zunehmend Realität. Damit verbinden sich hohe gesellschaftliche Erwartungen, aber auch Sorgen hinsichtlich einer schleichenden Entmündigung des Menschen. Am Beispiel des Forschungssektors lotet dieser Band die Optionen, Entwicklungschancen und Risiken von KI-Techniken für die Zukunft des wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisprozesses und der darauf beruhenden technischen Entwicklungen aus. Zu diesem Zweck wird zunächst der Stand der KI-Technik und ihrer Anwendungen dargestellt. Es folgen wissenschaftsphilosophische Untersuchungen zur Frage der Ersetzbarkeit des forschenden Menschen durch KI und zu erwartenden Veränderungen in der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Weitere Abschnitte widmen sich den Folgen für die Arbeitswelt von Forschern/Forscherinnen sowie den durch KI erzeugten neuen Herausforderungen für die rechtliche Regulierung im Spannungsfeld von Wissenschaftsfreiheit und Datenschutz. Der Band schließt mit Empfehlungen für die verantwortlichen Akteure in Wissenschaft, Forschungspolitik und Gesellschaft aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive.

Biological and philosophical anthropologies of the 20th century keep emphasising the "e;Sonderstellung"e; of humans among the realm of living beings. However, it is not clear how this particular role should be characterised, how it should be reconciled with biological findings, and which theoretical and practical conclusions should be drawn from it. Partly in opposition to these anthropological views on humankind biological disciplines underline the extensive similarities and common characteristics between humans and other species. Apparently, these biological findings concur with the criticism of anthropocentrism, which is expressed in Western philosophy of nature and by ethicists. To discuss these issues the Europaische Akademie organized the conference "e;The Uniqueness of Humankind - Uber die Sonderstellung des Menschen"e;. The proceedings of the conference documented in this volume approached the theoretical and practical concept of the "e;Sonderstellung"e; against the background of present day knowledge in biosciences. Furthermore, by interdisciplinary efforts, an attempt was made to clarify those conceptual problems that arise with the idea of the uniqueness of humankind. The present volume partly takes up and further develops topics that have been raised by volume 15, On Human Nature, that was published in this series in 2002.

Managing a successful transition of the current energy supply system to less carbon emitting options, ensuring a safe and secure supply during the whole process and in the long term, is one of the largest challenges of our time.

This book offers a description of the technical concepts and the legal situation regarding radioactive waste in different countries. It provides a fundamentally informing contribution and considers the ethical, legal and social aspects of this topic.

The most important results enable recommendations with respect to scientific progress, industrial relevance, economic potential, educational needs, potential adverse health effects and philosophical aspects of nanotechnology.

The Europiiische Akademie is concerned with the study of scientific and technolog ical advances for the individual, society and the natural environment. It is the result of the Europiiische Akademie's working group "Functional Foods" which worked from January 2001 to June 2003.

Presents the results of a temporary interdisciplinary project, ranging from a discussion of the theoretical and practical possibilities in human-embryo experimentation and its alternatives in research on adult stem cells, a comparison of the situations of regulation of embryo research in Europe, and a survey of European public attitudes.

Examines how the paradigm of the 'enabling welfare state' might offer a different perspective for European social policy. This work seeks to shed light on whether European social policy ought to play a role and, if so, what sort of role that could be. It is useful for scholars, policymakers, students of welfare and labour economics, and sociology.

The wealth of insights into the brain's functioning gained by neuroscience in recent years led to the development of new possibilities for intervening in the brain such as neurotransplantation, neural prostheses and brain stimulation techniques.

This book offers an authoritative analysis of the challenges that have arisen as a result of modern technologies. It covers several environmental problems, such as climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, loss of natural habitats, pollution and human population growth, and discusses practical scenarios for sustainable human dwelling of our planet. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the first part introduces ¿global changes¿, describing how they are happening in reality, and the challenges arising from them. The second part introduces methodological approaches borrowed from various disciplines, such as engineering, management science, philosophy and theology, which can help deal with the contemporary challenges resulting from global changes. Lastly, the third part discusses some of the themes presented in the light of novel concepts, such as the Anthropocene, and includes interesting proposals and ideas about how human beings could dwell the Earth in this new age. Offering a comprehensive theoretical reflection on the relation between technology, environment and human beings, it also provides a practice-oriented guide for researchers and decision-makers working on a new ethical paradigm of acting in the Anthropocene.

Synthetic biology is a dynamic, young, ambitious, attractive, and heterogeneous scientific discipline. It is constantly developing and changing, which makes societal evaluation of this emerging new science a challenging task, prone to misunderstandings. Synthetic biology is difficult to capture, and confusion arises not only regarding which part of synthetic biology the discussion is about, but also with respect to the underlying concepts in use. This book offers a useful toolbox to approach this complex and fragmented field. It provides a biological access to the discussion using a 'layer' model that describes the connectivity of synthetic or semisynthetic organisms and cells to the realm of natural organisms derived by evolution.Instead of directly reviewing the field as a whole, firstly our book addresses the characteristic features of synthetic biology that are relevant to the societal discussion. Some of these features apply only to parts of synthetic biology, whereas others are relevant to synthetic biology as a whole. In the next step, these new features are evaluated with respect to the different areas of synthetic biology. Do we have the right words and categories to talk about these new features? In the third step, traditional concepts like "life" and "artificiality" are scrutinized with regard to their discriminatory power. This approach may help to differentiate the discussion on synthetic biology. Lastly our refined view is utilized for societal evaluation. We have investigated the public views and attitudes to synthetic biology. It also includes the analysis of ethical, risk and legal questions, posed by present and future practices of synthetic biology.This book contains the results of an interdisciplinary research project and presents the authors' main findings and recommendations. They are addressed to science, industry, politics and the general public interested in this upcoming field of biotechnology.

"Synthetic biology" is the label of a new technoscientific field with many different facets and agendas. One common aim is to "create life", primarily by using engineering principles to design and modify biological systems for human use. In a wider context, the topic has become one of the big cases in the legitimization processes associated with the political agenda to solve global problems with the aid of (bio-)technological innovation. Conceptual-level and meta-level analyses are needed: we should sort out conceptual ambiguities to agree on what we talk about, and we need to spell out agendas to see the disagreements clearly.The book is based on the interdisciplinary summer school "Analyzing the societal dimensions of synthetic biology", which took place in Berlin in September 2014. The contributions address controversial discussions around the philosophical examination, public perception, moral evaluation and governance of synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology is a dynamic, young, ambitious, attractive, and heterogeneous scientific discipline. It is constantly developing and changing, which makes societal evaluation of this emerging new science a challenging task, prone to misunderstandings. Synthetic biology is difficult to capture, and confusion arises not only regarding which part of synthetic biology the discussion is about, but also with respect to the underlying concepts in use. This book offers a useful toolbox to approach this complex and fragmented field. It provides a biological access to the discussion using a 'layer' model that describes the connectivity of synthetic or semisynthetic organisms and cells to the realm of natural organisms derived by evolution.Instead of directly reviewing the field as a whole, firstly our book addresses the characteristic features of synthetic biology that are relevant to the societal discussion. Some of these features apply only to parts of synthetic biology, whereas others are relevant to synthetic biology as a whole. In the next step, these new features are evaluated with respect to the different areas of synthetic biology. Do we have the right words and categories to talk about these new features? In the third step, traditional concepts like ¿life¿ and ¿artificiality¿ are scrutinized with regard to their discriminatory power. This approach may help to differentiate the discussion on synthetic biology. Lastly our refined view is utilized for societal evaluation. We have investigated the public views and attitudes to synthetic biology. It also includes the analysis of ethical, risk and legal questions, posed by present and future practices of synthetic biology.This book contains the results of an interdisciplinary research project and presents the authors¿ main findings and recommendations. They are addressed to science, industry, politics and the general public interested in this upcoming field of biotechnology.

Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as medicine) allows today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an extent wh ich not too long aga seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises further and even more radical developments in the future, and it is at least often claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous etfects on and for all of humanity, for example in the areas of food production, transplantation medicine (including stem cell research and xenotransplantation), (therapeutic) genetic manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues), and of biodiversity conservation-strategies. At least in Western, industrialized countries the development of modern sciences led to a steady increase of human health, well-being and quality of life. However, with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research­ interests, the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that human beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of traditional human self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under­ standing according to which the question what it means to be "human" is treated in the realm of philosophy. And indeed, a closer look reveals that - without denying the value of scientitic progress - science cannot replace the philosophical approach to anthropological questions.

In the context of conducting research on the consequences of scientific and tech nological advance, the Europaische Akademie is also concerned with the support of scientists in the doctoral or post-doctoral phase who are working on topics or methods within its research spectrum.