Exploring Philosophical Issues in the Patenting of Scientific and Technological Inventions

Philosophy and Technology 26 (3):283-300 (2013)
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Abstract

Thus far, the philosophical study of patenting has primarily focused on sociopolitical, legal, and ethical issues, such as the moral justifiability of patenting living organisms or the nature of (intellectual) property. In addition, however, the theory and practice of patenting entails many important problems that can be fruitfully studied from the perspective of the philosophy of science and technology. The principal aim of this article is to substantiate the latter claim. For this purpose, I first provide a concise review of the main features of the theory and practice of the patenting of scientific and technological inventions. Second, I discuss several philosophical issues implied by these features and explore the possible contributions of the philosophy of science and technology to the clarification, or resolution, of these issues. The seven features discussed are: patents as commercial monopolies on scientific and technological inventions, the contrast between natural and non-natural subject matter, the distinction between inventions and discoveries, the reproducibility of inventions, the question of the sameness of two inventions, the distinction between the invented and the protected object, and the contrast between material objects versus concepts and theories. The article concludes with some observations on the problems and prospects of the philosophical study of the theory and practice of patenting scientific and technological inventions

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Hans Radder
VU University Amsterdam

Citations of this work

Which Scientific Knowledge is a Common Good?Hans Radder - 2017 - Social Epistemology 31 (5):431-450.
How Inclusive Is European Philosophy of Science?Hans Radder - 2015 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29 (2):149-165.
Intellectual Property, Globalization, and Left-Libertarianism.Constantin Vică - 2015 - Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 2 (3):323–345.
Pesticides and the Patent Bargain.Cristian Timmermann - 2015 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28 (1):1-19.

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References found in this work

The Tacit Dimension. --.Michael Polanyi & Amartya Sen - 1966 - Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy.Michael Polanyi - 1958 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Edited by Mary Jo Nye.
Science, the very idea.Steve Woolgar - 1988 - New York: Tavistock Publications.
Scientific knowledge: a sociological analysis.Barry Barnes - 1996 - London: Athlone. Edited by David Bloor & John Henry.

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