| Popis: |
The previous chapter developed the professional code of ethics for science based on a three-part moral ideal. An important question that was left unanswered is: Why should professionals obey this code? Although moral rules set standards, there is nothing about rules that makes you feel like following them. To the contrary, the existence of a rule makes many people feel like bending or breaking it (Woodruff 2014, 3). This raises the questions: Are there advantages either for the individual or for the profession to adhere to a code that restricts behavior? Is there some compelling reason to behave responsibly even in circumstances when disobeying a rule might lead to an immediate gain? A good answer lies in virtue ethics—particularly, the virtue of reverence (Hursthouse 2012). From the perspective of virtue ethics, people do the right thing because they feel like doing (have a disposition to do) the right thing and emotions are stronger motivators of action than beliefs. The other major approaches to ethics, deontology (Alexander and Moore 2007) and consequentialism (Sinnott- Armstrong 2011), provide ways to decide whether an action is right or wrong, but are not concerned directly with motivation, assuming tacitly that people will do the right thing when they recognize what it is. Prior to developing the advantages of a virtue ethics perspective, however, it is important to discuss other kinds of reasons for obeying a professional code and its limitations. For some professions, such as law, medicine, and engineering, following the code is one of the requirements of licensing, so breaking the rules can result in losing the right to practice the profession. Still, legal requirements are a kind of rule that some people will do their best to get around if they can. Furthermore, a legal requirement is not a moral requirement, and one would expect that a moral code should have a moral basis for following it. Finally, even if the legal requirement was an adequate reason, it does not apply to scientists who are not licensed by the government. |
