Dec 14 2008
The Morals of Scientists
In my post yesterday, Moralizing Science, I argued that morality and science are distinct. Notice I did not write, “Moralizing Scientists.” For scientists are human beings and they do have morals. However, when a scientist expresses his/her moral feelings/values/beliefs, they should not be presented as science.
A statement like, “Research discovers pregnancy of unwed mothers on the rise,” can be considered science (particularly if the research was indeed research and not something else). Yet this statement, “Research discovers the sin of pregnancy out of wedlock on the rise, and we’ve got to do something about it,” would not be science. That would be . . . politics?
There is a reason why our feelings of what should be are kept out of science. They can corrupt and distort it. If you feel too strongly about “what should be,” your efforts to discover, understand, and explain “what is,” may be compromised.
