Abstract

The concern for ethics is a leitmotiv when dealing with nanotechnologies. However, the target of this concern is far from being obvious, and the word 'nanoethics' itself has no clear-cut definition. Indeed, nanoethics is usually said to be 'the ethics of nanotechnologies', but it is never specified whether this 'ethics of nanotechnologies' is 'an ethics for nanotechnologies' or 'an ethics from nanotechnologies'. This paper aims to show that these two characterizations of nanoethics (for/from) imply different problems, but that they are both insufficient, even if necessary, to build a definition of nanoethics. In conclusion, I stress the idea that neither a 'top down' nor a 'bottom up' nanoethics are sufficient to characterize the ethics of nanotechnologies and that a 'reflexive equilibrium' is necessary in order to understand nanoethics as an ethics with nanotechnologies