Is there a conscience in science?
In discussing science and scientific research/discovery over some our past classes, there is an issue always raised pertaining to the difficulty of how much is too much. We addressed this in one of our recent classes in relation to current scientific areas that have become controversial. What lies at the heart of this discussion is a subject that we did not really breach and that is conscience.
Notably conscience contains the word science in it. On OED the two are compared as science being the theoretical perception of truth, while conscience is associated with moral conviction. This difference is important to note as we read stories like "Frankenstein", which both demonstrate an imperturbable connection between science and conscience. Frankenstein on comes to see gain real truth and understanding after his own theoretical perception of truth about man's ability to create life is overthrown by a crashing down of conscience upon his soul as he reaps the pains of his lack of judgment.
Similarly, in a story like "The Monster" we see a society in which the perception of truth is that Henry's character is no longer human and is in fact a monster, but he is sustained by those who have true moral conviction and realize the mistakes of past as well as those of society.
Notably conscience contains the word science in it. On OED the two are compared as science being the theoretical perception of truth, while conscience is associated with moral conviction. This difference is important to note as we read stories like "Frankenstein", which both demonstrate an imperturbable connection between science and conscience. Frankenstein on comes to see gain real truth and understanding after his own theoretical perception of truth about man's ability to create life is overthrown by a crashing down of conscience upon his soul as he reaps the pains of his lack of judgment.
Similarly, in a story like "The Monster" we see a society in which the perception of truth is that Henry's character is no longer human and is in fact a monster, but he is sustained by those who have true moral conviction and realize the mistakes of past as well as those of society.
posted by Zach at 3:08 PM
2 Comments:
wow, awesome post, you really opened my eyes to some truth.
I was kind of thinking about the same thing after we watched the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment tape in class. I understand the drive to get valuable data from research but you would think that people, or at least one person would stand up and say that isn't right. I mean at the inception of the "project" not 40 years after it begun. So what does this mean, are scientists not regulate by the same moral compass as the rest of society. Even though science is in the word conscience, the two entities seem very separate.
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