Philosophical Reflection On Uncertainty In Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is considered as the main representative of emerging technology, and also the key technology in the 21st century and the core technology in the next generation of industry revolutionary. In the view of philosophy of technology, nanotechnology is different from the traditional technology, such as the relation between technology and nature, the relation between technology and human beings, technology as knowledge and technology as an activity. It is inevitable to rethink uncertainty in the sphere of technology of philosophy in the modern society.Firstly, we explored the conception of uncertainty. Uncertainty means the lack of certainty. In the ontological perspectives, uncertainty shows that there are many states or consequences of matters or procedures, but we are not sure which will arise in the future. In the epistemological perspectives, uncertainty indicates that the cognitive subjects are not clear about the cognitive objects. The cognitive results are of probability. We are doubt about the authenticity of the cognitive results. The development of the philosophy and modern science reveals the cognitive process of the external world and the knowledge is a process from certainty to uncertainty. Reviewing the history of technology, we can discover that traditional technology is of certainty while modern technology is of uncertainty.Nanotechnology is a representative of the uncertainty of emerging technology. This is manifested in the following aspects:the definition and the research objects, the development and application goals, the decision-making and assessment and so on. The characteristics of nanotechnology are the openness faced to the future, unpredictability, the complexity and relevance, potential elusive. Combined with the state of knowledge, the uncertainty of nanotechnology is divided into complexity, ignorance and unknown. These uncertainties bring great influence to the human health, environment, ethics and society.The uncertainty of nanotechnology is closely associated with the essential properties of nanotechnology, such as the intermediary, converging technology, the technoscience characteristic, the context and social construction. These properties are of uncertainty. From the technological philosophy views, the causes of uncertainty can be divided into two parts. Firstly, when we considered nanotechnology as scientific knowledge, the deficit of knowledge and method all reflect inherent uncertainty. Secondly, when we considered nanotechnology as technology activities, the system comprised by nanotechnology and society leads to the uncertainty. At the same time, the causes of uncertainty are related to the complexity of nanotechnology and the cognitive limitation of the stakeholders.Scholars in Europe and the US pay attention to how to deal with the uncertainty of nanotechnology in many ways. Based on the traditional technology assessment, they proposed vision assessment, constructive assessment and real-time assessment. In the aspects of principle, there are the precautionary principle, the proactionary principle and the experience principle by embedding ethics to technology. Meanwhile, The European Union and the US explored some governance models in the practice of nanotechnology, such as the upper-stream governance, good governance and global governance. The attempt has troubles in feasibility as the uncertainty in ontology, epistemology and the ethical and societal implications aspects.Chinese philosophy contains some thought resources about how to live under the circumstances of uncertainty, such as the variable thoughts, "Wu" (the process of perception) in the epistemology, the wisdom of practice. Faced with the uncertainty of nanotechnology, the feasibility assessment of nanotechnology emphasizes the notion of living with uncertainty rather than avoiding or controlling uncertainty. The feasibility assessment of nanotechnology is based on Chinese philosophy, meanwhile it is action-orientation and of "in situ" (act according to circumstances),"real-time" (advance with the times) and integrality.