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Guadalupe Soria
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona - Projecte Dynamon
The level of trust that has characterized science and its relationship with society has contributed to a period of unparalleled scientific productivity. But this trust will endure only if the scientific community devotes itself to think thoroughly about the values associated with ethical scientific conduct and take the responsibility to call attention to the public issues involved (1). Moreover, how these values are transmitted to the future generations is also our own duty, as scientists. However, the most difficult ethical problem of scientists is not to merely avoid choosing evil, but to realize when a moral choice is being made.
Although the Cartesian paradigm has demonstrated to be useful for more than three centuries, it is becoming more and more evident that humans are not mere objective observers of nature that can predict and control it by using the scientific method. On the contrary, it needs to be assumed that the production of scientific knowledge is a process related to interests, values and compromises with society. It is our responsibility to educate future generations so that they do not experience value-blindness. Philosophical methods of ethical analysis do not guarantee that a person will not make a regrettable decision, but they can clarify and order the thinking that relates to information and actions(2).
Unfortunately, current generations of PhD students that will become future scientists have little or no knowledge about subjects like history or philosophy of science and its context in social world events.
Therefore, a survey on the current population of Spanish PhD students will be performed by sending a test via e-mail, in order to provide a diagnosis about: 1) the level of knowledge about history and philosophy of science and scientist ethics, 2) how students feel about their scientific education. The data obtained in this survey will help to design strategies to promote the thoughtfulness of the ethical values involved in scientific practice among the future generations of scientists.
(1) On Being a scientist, 1995.
(2) Wayne A. R. Leys, 1952. The scientist´s code of ethics.
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