Society, Ethics, and Technology, 4th Edition (Winston, M.E. and Edelbach, R.D.; 2009) [Book Review]

The book is one of a longstanding series of humanities anthologies issued by Wadsworth that I fi rst encountered a decade ago in Louis Pojman??s compilation of classic philosophy texts, The Quest for Truth. But in contrast to Plato and Aristotle, the fi elds of ethics and science and technology studies simply won??t stand still, so publishers are justifi ed in bringing out new editions in this area every few years. The mix of papers and essays in this collection strikes a good balance between relatively timeless and historical material on the one hand, and up-to-date topical discussions of current topics such as globalization, genetic engineering, and climate change on the other. This anthology began with a course the authors developed in 1993 at the College of New Jersey, assisted by NSF support for the fi eld of science and technology studies. The book is divided into two parts: Perspectives on Technology, which carries works on the history, politics, and ethics of technology in general; and Contemporary Technology and the Future, focused on five topical areas. The typography and layout of the book follow the pleasing well-established Wadsworth style. I detected a few signs of haste in copyediting: a typo here and there, and, most seriously, a place where apparently an entire page of references was left out. Considering that the office of proofreader was abolished by most publishers somewhere around 1995, this book is still better than average in its freedom from errors.