Towards a Global Ethics: the Debate on Nanotechnology in the European Union and China
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Towards a Global Ethics: The Debate on Nanotechnology in the European Union and China Sally Dalton-Brown A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire October 2013 Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards: I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution. Material submitted for another award: I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work. Signature of Candidate: Type of Award: PhD School: Health Abstract: Towards a Global Ethics: The Debate on Nanotechnology in the European Union and China The primary aim of the thesis is to assess whether ethical governance of Science and Technology is feasible as a global approach, using the example of nanotechnology. The thesis firstly compares ethical issues identified by stakeholders in China and the EU relating to the rapid introduction of a potentially transformative technology, namely nanotechnology. Part One of this thesis explores how the ‘narratives’ of nanotechnology differ in each region, particularly given their different bioethics contexts, and examines how specific concerns translate into policymaking. In questioning whether Eastern and Western approaches to nanotechnology governance can be aligned, one can observe that Europe is increasingly co- operating and competing with China. Such new interdependences between global actors require new global approaches to S&T policy, including ethical governance. Part Two of this thesis explores the concept of ‘global ethics’ and discusses the feasibility of a global approach. Given criticism of both universalism and relativism, it is often argued that a universal approach that takes sufficient account of local context cannot be developed. On the assumption that global ethics are achieved by global actors, this thesis looks at global agency. The thesis connects discourse ethics and participatory Technology Assessment (pTA), arguing that a version of Habermasian discourse ethics can provide a theoretical framework for dialogue between West and East. Discourse ethics has developed around Habermas’s argument that social order depends on our capacity to recognize, through rational discourse, the intersubjective validity of different views. Habermas asks the basic question of global ethics, of how different views (particularly of social order) can be universally recognized and agreed, perhaps within an 'ideal community' of communication, one that may be global. The thesis adds to Habermas’s discourse model, utilising virtue ethics as well as the work of, for example, Taylor, Beck, Korsgaard and others on identity ii formation. It is argued that the significant factor in global ethics is the formation of the agent’s moral identity, the formation of which requires one to go beyond one’s context, to achieve an intercultural personhood. Habermas (as do Taylor, Beck and others) suggests identity as a dual concept, reflecting an interdependence of society and one’s inner self. This would mean that one can understand the cultural biases inherent in any act of communication, while acting autonomously of such bias. If such a model of dual identity/agency can be applied to the intercultural dialogue on the governance of nanotechnology between East and West, it could potentially provide a new tool or model within pTA. iii Table of Contents Abstract...............................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents...............................................................................................................iv List of tables and diagrams…………………………………………………………………......vi Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................vii Introduction………………………….……………………………………………..............…....1 Chapter One: What is nanotechnology, and what should we be worried about?..12 1.1 Hypothetical nanoethics: Science fiction and nanotechnology............................26 1.2 Nanoethics debates in the EU and in China........................................................42 Chapter Two: Bioethics as an approach to nanoethics in China and the EU..........52 2.1 Social values and bioethics - informing the nanodebate in the EU......................57 2.2 Social values and bioethics - informing the nanodebate in China........................67 2.3 Global bioethics/global nanoethics?.....................................................................80 Chapter Three: Nanoregulation....................................................................................86 3.1 What are the risks, and what regulatory approaches might we take?..................86 3.2 Nanoregulation in the EU......................................................................................96 3.3 Nanoregulation in China......................................................................................104 3.4 Global nanopolicy................................................................................................108 Chapter Four: PTA, Habermas’s dialogue/discourse ethics, and nanofora………120 4.1 Agency as a global idea?.....................................................................................121 .2 Technology assessment (TA) and participatory technology assessment (pTA)..127 4.3 pTA in Europe …………………………………………………………………………143 4.4 pTA in China ……………………….…………………………………………............146 4.5 How pTA works (and why Habermas?) ……………………….………..................149 iv Chapter Five: The Virtuous Discourse Agent……………………………………............164 5.1 The species ethic as universal? ……………………….……………………….........166 5.2 Reason as a universal value? ……………………….…………………………........170 5.3 Emancipatory knowledge………………………………………………………..…….186 5.4 Dialectical agency.................................................................................................189 5.5 Autonomy as a (non)universal virtue? ……………………….………………..........192 5.6 Intersubjectivity………………………....………………………………………….......200 5.7 Global or universal virtues? ……………………….…………………………............204 Chapter Six: Universalism versus relativism...............................................................208 6.1 Identity……………………….…………….…………………………….......................219 6.2 Deriving the universal ……………………….………………………………..............224 6.3 Identity formation and nanoethics ……………………………………………...........249 Conclusions……………………….……………………………………………......................256 Bibliography……………………….……………………………………………........................264 Glossary of acronyms and technical terms ……………………….…………………………300 Appendix A: African nanoethics……………………….………………………………..........302 Appendix B: Material previously published. …………………………………………...........311 v List of tables and diagrams Chapter 1 Table 1: Global distribution of nanotechnology activity by country and classification…..18 Table 2: Counties dominating in nanotechnology…………………………….....................19 Table 3: Nanoethics issues in China PR and in the EU ………………….......................50-1 Chapter 2 Table 4: Distinct Meanings of dignity ……………………………………….........…….........63 Table 5: Differing bioethics, differing social contexts (China and EU) ………...................79 Chapter 3 Table 6: A comparison of nanoethics environments in the EU and China ….….......117-19 Chapter 4 Diagram1: pTA issues and components ……………………...........................................152 Diagram 2: Further issues when setting up a pTA/discourse forum……………………...158 Chapter 5 Table 7: Aristotelian, Habermasian and Confucian ‘virtues’ ……………………..........199 Table 8: The skill set of the (global) virtuous discourse agent ……………………........203 Conclusion Table 9: A sea of ‘isms’: Definitions………………………………………….……………214 Table 10: China/EU points of similarity/dissimilarity on nanotechnology ………….......249 Table 11: The five-stage process……………………......................................................252 vi Acknowledgements This thesis has been partly written in the UK and partly in Australia (as well as on a few long plane journeys in between). I owe many people my thanks in both places, and some beyond. First of all I would like to thank the incomparable Empress Doris for her calm perspicacity and endless patience, and for her great friendship. Thanks also to Miltos Ladikas for access to GEST reports, advice on pTA, and particularly for including me on his GEST trip to Beijing – I am grateful also to Ma Ying from CASTED for sending me various nanoarticles, and arranging a nanotechnology panel in Beijing, and to Camilo Fautz at ITAS (KIT) for sending me some useful articles on EU regulation. Thanks to Roger Chenells and Kate Chatfield, study buddies extraordinaire, and to Tim Thornton. I also thank the University of Central Lancashire for providing me with the scholarship that made this possible, and to Cathy Lennon for helping me with my many bureaucratic incompetencies, amongst other things. And last but not least, thanks to you-know-who for support, including endless cups of tea; by my reckoning this project took nearly a thousand. I say nothing of any other beverages that may have been harmed during the making of this thesis. vii Introduction: Towards a Global Ethics? Science & Technology Policy