Along with the rapid worldwide advance of nanotechnology, debates on associated ethical issues have spread from local to international levels. However unlike science and engineering issues, international perceptions of ethical issues are very diverse. This paper provides an analysis of how sociocultural factors such as language, cultural heritage, economics and politics can affect how people pe...

Thesis (1) appears in two papers published in 1963.1 Theses (2) and (3) appear in later works under the joint rubric of internal realism.2 Putnam has not explained how the semantic theses that constitute internal realism fit together with his earlier, reliabilist conception of scientific inquiry. Nor have his followers. Barrels of philosophical ink have been spilled on (3) in complete isolation...