Grass’s Technology Ethics in the Novel Rättin

Rättin is an eco-warning novel wrote by the German writer Günter Grass, winner of Nobel Prize in literature, in 1999. The abuse of nuclear technology in the novel implies the failure of the reason enlightenment education, because the technical rationality has thoroughly led human to the cul-de-sac of development. Although this novel is, to a great extent a reflection of pessimism, the writer’s original intention is to send a warning to the human beings: to die, or not to die? Once the nuclear war breaks out, the human beings will be under the threat of dying out. For this reason, it is necessary to complete the criterion of nuclear ethics and make people strictly follow the three basic principles: the humanitarianism between nuclear technology and human beings, the ecologism between nuclear technology and nature and the obligation principle between nuclear technology and society. Those above, from Grass’s point of view, are our hope and way out. Only stopping the use of the nuclear weapon and promoting the utilization of nuclear energy safely and peacefully are our shared mission and common goal in the future.