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Ambivalences of Creating Life

Societal and Philosophical Dimensions of Synthetic Biology

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Editors:
  1. Kristin Hagen

    1. EA European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment GmbH, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany

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  2. Margret Engelhard

    1. EA European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment GmbH, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Georg Toepfer

    1. Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin, Berlin, Germany

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  • Includes the contributions to an interdisciplinary international summer school entitled "Analyzing the societal dimensions of synthetic biology
  • Synthetic biology is a rapidly developing new approach to biotechnology
  • Its main aim is to use engineering principles to create living organisms for human use
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment (ETHICSSCI, volume 45)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Editorial: Ambivalences in Societal and Philosophical Dimensions of Synthetic Biology

    • Kristin Hagen, Margret Engelhard, Georg Toepfer
    Pages 1-8

  3. The Synthetic Nature of Biology

    • Carlos G. Acevedo-Rocha
    Pages 9-53

  4. Making-of Synthetic Biology: The European CyanoFactory Research Consortium

    • Röbbe Wünschiers
    Pages 55-72

  5. Synthetic Biology for Space Exploration: Promises and Societal Implications

    • Cyprien N. Verseux, Ivan G. Paulino-Lima, Mickael Baqué, Daniela Billi, Lynn J. Rothschild
    Pages 73-100

  6. “First Species Whose Parent Is a Computer”—Synthetic Biology as Technoscience, Colonizing Futures, and the Problem of the Digital

    • Martin Müller
    Pages 101-113

  7. “Some Kind of Genetic Engineering… Only One Step Further”—Public Perceptions of Synthetic Biology in Austria

    • Walburg Steurer
    Pages 115-140

  8. Synthetic Biology in the Press

    • Mirko Ancillotti, Stefan Eriksson
    Pages 141-156

  9. Let’s Talk About… Synthetic Biology—Emerging Technologies and the Public

    • Stefanie B. Seitz
    Pages 157-175

  10. Public Engagement in Synthetic Biology: “Experts”, “Diplomats” and the Creativity of “Idiots”

    • Britt Wray
    Pages 177-197

  11. Early Engagement with Synthetic Biology in the Netherlands—Initiatives by the Rathenau Instituut

    • Virgil Rerimassie
    Pages 199-213

  12. A Critical Participatory Approach to the Evaluation of Synthetic Biology

    • Inna Kouper
    Pages 215-241

  13. Synthetic Biology—Playing Games?

    • Leona Litterst
    Pages 243-250

  14. Metaphors of Life: Reflections on Metaphors in the Debate on Synthetic Biology

    • Daniel Falkner
    Pages 251-265

  15. Debasement of Life? A Critical Review of Some Conceptual and Ethical Objections to Synthetic Biology

    • Tobias Eichinger
    Pages 267-274

  16. Engineers of Life? A Critical Examination of the Concept of Life in the Debate on Synthetic Biology

    • Johannes Steizinger
    Pages 275-292

  17. Synthetic Biology and the Argument from Continuity with Established Technologies

    • Andreas Christiansen
    Pages 293-311

  18. Synthetic Biology Between Engineering and Natural Science. A Hermeneutic Methodology for Laboratory Research Practice

    • Michael Funk
    Pages 313-323

  19. Epistemological Implications of Synthetic Biology: A Heideggerian Perspective

    • Martin G. Weiss
    Pages 325-335
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Keywords

About this book

"Synthetic biology" is the label of a new technoscientific field with many different facets and agendas. One common aim is to "create life", primarily by using engineering principles to design and modify biological systems for human use. In a wider context, the topic has become one of the big cases in the legitimization processes associated with the political agenda to solve global problems with the aid of (bio-)technological innovation. Conceptual-level and meta-level analyses are needed: we should sort out conceptual ambiguities to agree on what we talk about, and we need to spell out agendas to see the disagreements clearly.

The book is based on the interdisciplinary summer school "Analyzing the societal dimensions of synthetic biology", which took place in Berlin in September 2014.

The contributions address controversial discussions around the philosophical examination, public perception, moral evaluation and governance of synthetic biology.

Editors and Affiliations

  • EA European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment GmbH, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany

    Kristin Hagen, Margret Engelhard

  • Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Georg Toepfer

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Ambivalences of Creating Life

  • Book Subtitle: Societal and Philosophical Dimensions of Synthetic Biology

  • Editors: Kristin Hagen, Margret Engelhard, Georg Toepfer

  • Series Title: Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21088-9

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-21087-2Published: 08 September 2015

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-37271-6Published: 23 August 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-21088-9Published: 27 August 2015

  • Series ISSN: 1860-4803

  • Series E-ISSN: 1860-4811

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 335

  • Topics: Philosophy, general, Biotechnology

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