Tom Pearson writes
in message <3.0.6.32.20000714215949.0082dd40@panam1.panam.edu>:
> >
> >TH>By analogy, you might as well argue that
> >>the scientist would have no reason *within his/her science*,
> >>for not being immoral.
>
> Ted, a good deal of the research (including my own) done over the past
> decade into the moral decision-making processes of scientists is beginning
> to show that, in many cases, your suggestion above is false. Based on my
> own investigations, it is turning out that bench scientists and research
> managers in medical research labs and biotechnology firms display a strong
> tendency to derive moral norms precisely from the scientific community of
> practice they inhabit. In other words, it is precisely *within his/her
> science* that many (perhaps "most"; the numbers vary a little) scientists
> find the ethical standards that guide them toward "not being immoral."
> Most interesting (and, initially, most dismaying) to me was the fact that,
> among those researchers sampled, those who had been working in the field
> continuously for 20 years or more and who were rated by their peers as
> exhibiting "excellent" or "very good" ethical standards, "religious values"
> ranked last among the list of possible sources for their moral standards.
> These people (the morally-excellent 20-year veterans) reported that the
> standards of moral rectitude that were implicit in the actual practice of
> scientific research were their primary source for shaping their ethical
> conduct. Again, these same people reported that "religious values" played
> a very small role in determining appropriate choices and behavior when
> functioning in their professional scientific role. For what it's worth.
>
That's very interesting. Although I was only considering the
potential for moral guidelines as coming directly from the
facts and data of science in what I said above, I didn't think
about the community and principles of science as sources.
Indeed, science can't work without what we all recognize
--regardless of worldview--as honesty and truthfulness.
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