Ethics is an important consideration in science. Scientific research must be guided by what is right and what is wrong. That's where ethical rules come in. They help ensure that science is done safely and that scientific knowledge is reliable.
Today, ethical or moral issues are as important as scientific and technological activities and progress. Science and technology provide us with the capacity to have a systematic knowledge of natural and human realities and to improve the conditions of our material life. Ethics helps us to identify moral values whose application improves our internal existence and balances our individual and social lives. Science and ethics are two necessary components that man uses to enjoy a good life and well-being, to realize his own essence and to work towards perfection.
Ethics involves the study of values in the area of human behavior. Examples of values that can distort science include attitudes toward religion, race and gender. It is said that science has social structures and mechanisms that tend to limit and correct the influences of such biases. It is stated that the peer review process, the requirement that experiments be replicable, and the openness of communication serve this purpose.
The brochure ends with a strong call for scientists to exercise their social responsibility. A second edition of this pamphlet was published in 1995, revised by a joint committee of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, which conserves much of the discussion on the role of values in science. The precondition for the moralization of the individual is the coordination between their family and institutional education and the value system of society. As Rescher states in the final section of his essay: “It is a regrettable fact that too many people, both scientists and students of the scientific method, have focused their attention so acutely on the abstract “logic” of an idealized “scientific method” that this ethical dimension of science has gone completely unnoticed by them.
Not only are scientists said to be members of society and therefore face issues related to the social uses of science, but those who disagree with Rescher's disclaimer make a more controversial ethical statement. The ethics of science and science itself share the objective of understanding in human terms the actions of scientists when manipulating the physical world. The divide between science and ethics has been driven by a growing interest in the actions of scientists by people who are not scientists. According to this theory, moral behaviors are approved by society, and morality in man is the consequence of experience, learning and the influence of the surrounding environment.
They affirm that scientists, because of their special knowledge and the support they demand from society, have a social obligation to be concerned about the uses that society makes of science and to help the lay public to make informed decisions on technological issues. As he states, this problem of test standards is ethical, and not simply theoretical or methodological in nature, because it bridges the gap between scientific understanding and action, between thinking and doing. The use of placebos in testing the efficacy of a new drug may raise ethical problems associated with the discontinuation of potentially effective treatment for a serious illness. The stage of subordination or “heteronomy” goes hand in hand with realism, moral objectivity and the belief in immanent justice.
Ethical dilemmas, health problems, work displacement and gender are situations that require ethical thinking through the analysis and application of ethical principles. In an essay entitled The Ethical Dimensions of Scientific Research (1), Nicholas Rescher, a widely published logician and philosopher of science, attacks the idea that science is free of values and shows how ethical considerations enter into many aspects of the practice of scientific research. Nuclear technology, biotechnology and information technology (IT) are the main technological innovations that pose ethical and moral problems. Rescher discusses the question of how much evidence a scientist must accumulate before announcing his findings.
What remains is to generate a moral attitude that guarantees peace and security in the world and the principles and conditions for success in moral education. .
