Public world

WHO working group Environmental Health Criteria 174, Isophorone. pp 1-84. Geneva, Office of Publications, World Health Organization, 1995... 

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Thinking about technology requires both a political philosophy and a philosophy of science the latter because of the obvious importance of science in the development of technology and in the assessment of its effects the former because technology constitutes part of the public world and thus is of political concern. 

Rawls basic structure to which his ideas of goodness apply (the political and economic institutions of a country) is part of the public world. However, Rawls theory is not directly concerned with this public world, but with how rights, liberties and goods should be distributed between individuals (Rawls, 1971, p61). 

I suggested above that it is the duty of a government to use its powers to ensure that the public world is a good for its citizens, and that the world provides a place for networks that foster the development of individuals as independent practical reasoners. The ethical and political theories that dominate current thinking on public policy do not acknowledge the existence of such a public world distinct from the individuals within it. 

In the previous chapter I concluded that decisions about technology should be informed by a sense of responsibility for the public world, and that the public world should foster such a sense of responsibility in its citizens. What does having a sense of responsibility involve What factors affect whether or not people have such a sense of responsibility ... 

In the next section I look at how technological choices are made and the extent to which responsibility for the public world is neglected through failure to have regard for the effects of those choices on the nature of the world that we live in. I then consider why, for synthetic chemicals, nobody is held to account for the consequences of technological decisions. 

This illustrates how technology - even when the technological items are privately owned - is part of the shared, public world. It means that the number of mobile phones, computers or cars that people have cannot be regarded as Votes for a world with such things. Many who possess them might prefer it if the world were without these things, but while they are part of the world the rational choice for the individual is most often to have them if others do. 

The forms taken by our needs therefore depend on the world that we share with others. This is the same point that I made in Chapter 8 the content of individual interests is a function of the world in which the individual lives. To change the world we have to act with others. This action is political action and must be justified by arguments that are concerned with what the public world should be like. Such arguments should be at the centre of mainstream political discussion, and the role of government is to put their conclusions into effect. 

One part of organized irresponsibility is the neglect of responsibility for the public world constituted by technology when making decisions about technology. The other is the fact that rarely is anyone held to account for that neglect. 

I say in part because, aFter taking into account the needs oF world, ruling out some products on the basis oF political judgements, there are still many choices left to be made simply on the basis oF the preferences of the consumer. Citizens act as consumers when they make political decisions about how the public world should be simply on the basis of whether their own interests will be furthered. This should be regarded as corruption. 

Stewart BW, Kleihues P (2003) IARC Non serial Publication (World Cancer Report), http //www.who.int... 

There is also a database World Translations Index (WTI) which records translations of literature in all fields of science and technology. It corresponds to the publication World Transindex . Translations covered are those from all languages into Western languages and those from other Western languages into French, Spanish and Portuguese. World Translation Index is available on the European Space Agency Information Service. The database is updated monthly and is produced by the International Translation Centre, Delft, The Netherlands, and the Institut d Information Scientifrque et Technique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifrque, Paris, France. 

WHO. Air Quality Guidelines for Europe 2001, WHO Regional Publication, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2001. 

T. H. Jukes, Naturwiss. 61 (1974) 6 http //www.who.int/malaria/publications/ world malaria report 2012/wmr2012 factsheetpdf. 

In 1963, McBride et al. published the Thermodynamic Properties to 6000K for 210 Substances Involving the First 18 Elements, NASA Report SP-3001 [15]. This publication revealed for the first time to the public world the methods of calculating thermochemical data for monoatomic, diatomic, and polyatomic species. At that time, JANAF tables were accessible to only a very restricted number of people. The NASA... 

Sara Ruddick, Private Brother, Public World , in New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf, ed. Jane Marcus (London Macmillan, 1981), pp. 185-215 p. 186. 

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