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This book explores the relevance of Japanese ethics for the field of ethics of technology. It covers the theories of Japanese ethicists such as Nishida Kitar , Watsuji Tetsur , Imamichi Tomonobu, Yuasa Yasuo, as well as more contemporary ethicists, and explores their relevance for the analysis of energy technologies, ICT, robots, and geoengineering. It features contributions from Japanese scholars, and international scholars who have applied Japanese ethics to problems in the global condition.
Technological development is considered to cause new ethical issues, such as genetically modified organisms fostering monocultures, nanotechnologies causing issues of privacy, as well as health and environmental issues, robotics raising issues about the meaning of humanity, and the risks of nuclear power, as witnessed in the Fukushima disaster. At the same time, technology embodies a hope for mankind, such as ICT improving relationships between human beings and nature, and smartsystems assisting humans in leading a more ethical and environmentally friendly life. This book explores these ethical issues and their impact from a Japanese perspective.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction (editors).- Part I. Japanese ethics of technology. - Chapter 2. Masato SHIRAI. Technology, artificiality, and human beings in later Nishida philosophy .- Chapter 3. Ryoko ASAI. Technology as a Mask .- Chapter 4. Kevin LAM. Ethics for magicians: On Shimomura Torataro's philosophy of technology .- Chapter 5. Yasuo DEGUCHI. Ethics of Emptiness in the technological age .- Chapter 6. Maki SATO. Nature as an Organic Mandala - Implications for the Introduction of Geoengineering .- Part II. The reception of Japanese ethics of technology in the West. - Chapter 7. Mikael LAAKSOHARJU. Ethics for Techies .- Chapter 8. Rickard GRASSMAN. 'Animating Binaries: Zen elements in Japanese discourse and its impact on technological change' .- Chapter 9. Per FORS. Sustainable ICT: Tools from the technology-mediated sphere for ecological sustainability .- Chapter 10. Thomas Taro LENNERFORS. Anthropotechnics and self-cultivation: Sloterdijk meets Yuasa Chapter 11. Iordanis KAVATHATZOPOULOS. Inter-cultural design and use of robots .- Part III. The impact of Fukushima for Japanese ethics of technology. - Chapter 12. Takashi MAJIMA, From "Green" to "Smart": The impact of Fukushima on "Green IT" in Japan .- Chapter 13. Ching-yuen CHEUNG. Reading Tanaka Shozo after Fukushima .- Chapter 14. Saeko KIMURA. How to write the invisible: thinking uncanny fear of radiation.
About the author
Thomas Taro Lennerfors (Ph.D., Docent) is an associate professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, and a visiting researcher at Meiji University, Japan. His work concerns ethics, philosophy, business and technology. Apart from monographs and book chapters, he has published papers for example in Futures, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society, Business Ethics: A European Review, Business and Society, Harvard Business Review, and Business History Review.
Kiyoshi Murata is Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics and Professor of MIS at the School of Commerce, Meiji University. His research interest is in information ethics including privacy, surveillance, ICT professionalism and gender issues. Kiyoshi is International Research Associate at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, and President of the Japan Society for Information and Management. He has published his papers in scholarly journals including Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, AI and Society, International Review of Information Ethics, and Journal of Business Ethics.
Summary
Is the first to explicitly present and discuss the relevance of Japanese ethics of technology
Is timely and topical in view of the Fukushima disaster and its impact
Includes a discussion of the reception of Japanese ethics of technology in the West
Brings together Japanese and non-Japanese scholars
