Nuclear Waste Management and Legitimacy Nihilism and Responsibility

About this book

Nuclear technology places special demands on society and both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy for peaceful purposes require a large measure of security and monitoring at the international level. Nuclear Waste Management and Legitimacy focuses on nuclear waste management, which can work in democratic countries only if viewed as legitimate by the population. Nuclear Waste Management and Legitimacy posits the inability of democracies to establish such legitimacy as an explanation for the current absence of public policy decisions that can identify a solution. The problems are such that they can be resolved only if fundamental aspects of the modern notion of legitimacy are set aside.

Contents

Introduction: a Faustian Bargain

1. Elusive Legitimacy
2. Legitimacy and Ethics
3. God is Dead: Nihilism or Responsibility
4. The Uncomfortable Legitimacy
5. Moral Culture and the Formulation of Norms Conclusion: Legitimacy without Responsibility

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Biography

Mats Andrén is Professor of History of Ideas and Science, at the Department for Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, University of Gothenburg