International Journal of Applied Philosophy

Volume 20, Issue 2, Fall 2006

Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin
Pages 179-190

What’s So Special about Nanotechnology and Nanoethics?

Nanoethics is a contentious field for several reasons. Some believe it should not be recognized as a proper area of study, because they believe that nanotechnology itself is not a true category but rather an amalgamation of other sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and engineering. Critics also allege that nanoethics does not raise any new issues but rather revisits familiar ones such as privacy. This paper answers such criticisms and sets the context for the papers that follow in this nanoethics symposium.