Perspectives from an Everyday Understanding ofNature on Nanotechnology

Abstract: The topic of this contribution is the tension between the everyday dichot-omy of nature and technology and the nanotechnological understanding of the world. It is essential to nanotechnology that nature and technology not be categori-cally opposed as the man-made and the non-man-made, but rather regarded as parts of a structurally identical whole. After the introduction, [ will address three points: In a brief first section I will formulate a few questions and a thesis about the nanotechnoJogicaJ developments that can be expected to come. In the main section I will assess four aspects of everyday understanding of nature and technology that are used to legitimate nanotechnology. Finally I will discuss whether an everyday un-derstanding of nature can be conceived as a critical authority with respect to the nanotechnology program