Abstract
As one reads this book, one gets the impression of listening in on only half of the conversation, or maybe that there were complications in translation from the Dutch. Schuurman brings impressive credentials to the topic as a widely published professor of philosophy at the technological universities of Delft and Eindhoven, a senator in the Dutch Parliament, and chairman of the Lindeboom Center for Medical Ethics, yet the book is filled with sweeping assertions without explanation or support. For example, "Engineers, instructors, and employees must all ask themselves whether their contribution to technology does justice to the plant and animal kingdom, to our sources for raw materials, to consumers, to society, to culture, to third world countries, and the like" (p. 99). The book does not unpack this sentence. It simply goes on to other points as if all is clear. What does Schuurman mean by justice? How does one do justice to culture or the plant kingdom? While Schuurman probably has clear ideas in mind, in this work they are often left unexplained.