A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

8. Conclusion

Nuclear technologies have raised, and will continue to raise, a host of philosophical and political issues. Perhaps at the heart of nuclear science and technology in the twentieth century has been the notion that science, and especially nuclear science, is on a deterministic, almost preordained, path, and that the most we can hope to do is to slow its progress in undesirable directions. As such, it is arguable that many, perhaps most, decision-makers felt that such inevitabilities rendered irrelevant all issues of morality. The issues became more matters of management than of leadership.¹³ Thus far, the twenty-first century is giving us hope, from developments in commercial nuclear power in particular, that the old technocratic paradigms are breaking down. However, simultaneously there is growing apprehension as nuclear proliferation seems to be quickening pace.