Science, Technoscience and Ethics: Historic-philosophical, Sociopolitical and Economic Aspects

Abstract

Almost from its dawn, Western civilization and culture have displayed an unprecedented knowledge acquisition, inner and social human evolution, and broader social development. Beginning with the rise of the ancient Greek civilization and culture, this development culminated in the Modern and Postmodern Era, particularly with their astonishing, and so promising technoscientific, economic and sociopolitical development. Unfortunately, though, this so hopeful human course did not lead to the fulfillment of all those expectations. On the contrary, besides all humanity’s significant multi-sided progress, human societies are trapped in states of value-related confusion, as well as in conditions of experiential ambiguity and contradiction of their own achievements, leading them to a dystopian situation of high future risks. Based on literature references, and following the course of Western history – as it was further reinforced, developed, and widely established primarily through Western-European colonialism – the present work seeks to identify, highlight and critically discuss potential turning points, that could be considered determinative for the aforementioned dystopian, global situation, which modern societies are trapped in.