Science Policy, Ethics, and Economic Methodology

Some Problems of Technology Assessment and Environmental-Impact Analysis
1985
ISBN: 978-90-277-1845-7
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, 321 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1070 g

If indeed scientists and technologists, especially economists, set much of the agenda by which the future is played out, and I think they do, then the student of scientific methodology and public ethics has at least three options. He can embrace certain scientific methods and the value they hold for social decisionmaking, much as Milton Friedman has accepted neoclassical econom­ ics. Or, he can condemn them, regardless of their value, much as Stuart Hampshire has rejected risk-cost-benefit analysis (RCBA). Finally, he can critically assess these scientific methods and attempt to provide solutions to the problems he has uncovered. As a philosopher of science seeking the middle path between uncritical acceptance and extremist rejection of the economic methods used in policy analysis, I have tried to avoid the charge of being "anti science". Fred Hapgood, in response to my presentation at a recent Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science, said that my arguments "felt like" a call for rejection of the methods of risk-cost-benefit analysis. Not so, as Chapter Two of this volume should make eminently clear. All my criticisms are construc­ tive ones, and the flaws in economic methodology which I address are uncovered for the purpose of suggesting means of making good techniques better. Likewise, although I criticize the economic methodology by which many technology assessments (TA's) and environmental-impact analyses (EIA's) have been used to justify public projects, it is wrong to conclude that I am anti-technology.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shrader-Frechette, Kristin

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltmanagement, Umweltökonomie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I. Introduction.- One: An Overview of Technology Assessment and Environmental-Impact Analysis.- Two: Assessing Risk-Cost-Benefit Analysis, the Preeminent Method of Technology Assessment and Environmental-Impact Analysis.- II. General Methodological Problems.- Three: The Retreat from Ethical Analysis.- Four: The Fallacy of Unfinished Business.- III. Particular Methodological Problems.- Five: RCBA and the Aggregation Assumption.- Six: RCBA and the Assumption of Partial Quantification.- Seven: The Problem of Regional Equity.- IV. Steps towards Solutions.- Eight: Ethically Weighted Risk-Cost-Benefit Analysis.- Nine: Assessment Through Adversary Proceedings.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.