The Hermeneutic Side of Responsible Research and Innovation

Table of contents

1. Cover
2. Title
3. Copyright
4. Foreword
5. Preface
6. 1 What Makes New Science and Technology Meaningful to Society?
   1. 1.1. Motivation and objectives
   2. 1.2. The need for orientation in NEST fields
   3. 1.3. Short propaedeutic
   4. 1.4. A brief guide to this book
7. 2 Extending the Object of Responsibility Assessments in RRI
   1. 2.1. Motivation and overview
   2. 2.2. Some impressions of RRI debates so far
   3. 2.3. A pragmatic view on the notion of responsibility
   4. 2.4. The object of responsibility debates in RRI so far
   5. 2.5. The object of responsibility debates in RRI: an extension
   6. 2.6. Concluding remarks
8. 3 Assessing Responsibility by Considering Techno-Futures
   1. 3.1. Responsibility assessments: introduction and overview
   2. 3.2. Brief remarks on the epistemology of prospective knowledge
   3. 3.3. Responsibility for NEST: the orientation dilemma
   4. 3.4. Three modes of orientation
   5. 3.5. The hermeneutic approach to techno-visionary futures
9. 4 Definitions and Characterizations of NEST as Construction of Meaning
   1. 4.1. Motivation and point of departure
   2. 4.2. Some observations from NEST debates
   3. 4.3. The pragmatic character of definitions
   4. 4.4. Defining and characterizing as meaning-giving activity
10. 5 Understanding Nanotechnology: A Process Involving Contested Assignments of Meaning
    1. 5.1. Nanotechnology: a paradigmatic RRI story
    2. 5.2. The early time of nanotechnology: troubled beginnings
    3. 5.3. Defining nanotechnology: a mission impossible?
    4. 5.4. The meaning of nanotechnology: the shift from a revolutionary to a quite normal technology
11. 6 Robots: Challenge to the Self-Understanding of Humans
    1. 6.1. Autonomous technology: challenges to our comprehension
    2. 6.2. Robots that can make plans and Man’s self-image
    3. 6.3. Technology futures in robotics
    4. 6.4. The hermeneutic view of robots
12. 7 Enhancement as a Cipher of the Future
    1. 7.1. Introduction and overview
    2. 7.2. On the semantics of (technical) enhancement
    3. 7.3. Human enhancement
    4. 7.4. Animal enhancement
    5. 7.5. Conclusions
    6. 7.6. Enhancement as a cipher of the future
13. 8 Technology to Combat Climate Change: the Hermeneutic Dimension of Climate Engineering
    1. 8.1. Climate change and the ambivalence of technology
    2. 8.2. Limitations of the previous approaches to finding a solution
    3. 8.3. Climate engineering as a technical option
    4. 8.4. Chances and risks of climate engineering
    5. 8.5. The hermeneutics of climate engineering
    6. 8.6. Epilogue: hermeneutic extension of the imperative of responsibility?
14. 9 Hermeneutic Assessment: Toward an Interdisciplinary Research Program
    1. 9.1. Assigning meaning to NEST as object of responsibility
    2. 9.2. Hermeneutic approaches
    3. 9.3. The emergence of NEST meaning: hermeneutic assessment
    4. 9.4. Reflection and epilogue
15. Inspiration Behind the Chapters
16. Bibliography
17. Index
18. End User License Agreement