Philosophy of Science and Nanotechnology

This paper focuses on the epistemological status of nanotechnology. It argues a twofold thesis: on the one hand, nanotechnoscience is not just one more chapter in the history of science or technology, but a radical shift that opens new horizons. On the other hand, nanoscience can and must be seen as a new science, namely a cross-disciplinary and a border-science. Thus, the question regarding the philosophy of nanotechnoscience deals with a science defined by border-problems, which can shed new lights into similar sciences, such as the sciences of complex systems, for example. Whilst nanoscale research cannot be seen as reduccionist, from a philosophical point of view the core subject lies on the concept of "scale". The concept of nanotechnoscience allows a real unification of engineering and science, of construction, manipulation and control of nanophenomena and, at the same time, an explanation of what is being ensambled and designed. Throughtout such a unity a quite new understandig of science and technology is possible