1. Ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss.
Before proceeding to the KI, it is important to know what the AOKS the essay will focus on, which includes Ethics, the natural sciences and the arts.
Ethics is the study of morals, to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong.
Science is when inquisitiveness leads to a hypothesis which drives the thinker to perform a series of experiments to gather primary data to prove if the thesis is valid or not.
Art is the ability to express creativity through a visual medium such as a painting or sculpture or through an auditory medium such as composing music or both such as drama, or through writing, a medium of communication.
Based on the given TOK title, the primary and most striking knowledge issues are to what extent do ethics restrict research in the natural sciences? And to what extent do ethics play a role in expressing a form of art?
To what extent do Ethics restrict research in the Natural sciences?
I believe that ethics, or the way an individual separates the right and the wrong is extremely subjective and related to the norms of the person’s society, hence I feel that ethics does influence people’s attitudes on a particular activity, it can play both roles as an invader or a supporter of knowledge in the natural sciences.
Based on my thesis, I will explore two real life situations, one when ethics restricted, or otherwise a claim and a counterclaim where ethics encouraged the production of knowledge in the natural sciences.
Ethics can halt the production of knowledge in the natural sciences. Ethics drive people to protest against a research that goes against the norms of a society...
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... to forbid someone from expressing art.
On the contrary, I think despite human rights that include the freedom of speech, to express, there have been instances when the expression of art was banned and hence the production of knowledge was restricted. Censorship boards in India have restricted multiple movies from being released in the theatres such as the Black Friday by Anurag Kashyap. Black Friday was about the bomb blast and riots between the Hindus and Muslims in 1992 in Mumbai.
In conclusion, I would to conclude that ethical judgements are very subjective; people do not think in the same way, some may find a specific judgement ethical whilst others may not favour them. Using my essay, I have viewed both sides of where ethical judgements have restricted as well as encouraged the production of knowledge in the area of the natural sciences and the arts.
Zak, Steven. “Ethics and Animals.” Taking Sides: Science, Technology, and Society. Gilford: Dushkin Publishing Group, 2007
Ethics is an important proponent when considering any decision. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is something everyone should know. However, the importance of ethics gets minimized when a decision that seems wrong actually has benefits. In the efforts of improving society, often ethics is violated. Sometimes in order for society to be better off as a whole, there has to be little sacrificing of ethical practices along the way to do so.
Siegel, A. (2008). Ethics of Stem Cell Research. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/stem-cells/.
The history of ethics exhibits many different approaches at securing an objectivist ethics. Besides traditional theistic-based approaches, there have been attempts which seek to establish some objective foundation (usually in practical reason or human interest) that is independent of, but which can be used to generate, or involve, an ethical outlook. Another less direct approach has taken the form of attempts at elaborating points of advantageous comparison between ethics and some other discip...
What do we mean by an ethical judgement? There is no clear answer to what these words imply but, from the earliest times, philosophers and religious figures have developed codes of conduct based on ethical principles. Some of these codes are said to come from religion while others relied on human reason to decide what is right or wrong. The codes however, contain more similarities than differences. Immanuel Kant, an 18th century philosopher, believed that our moral values come from our ability to reason and he called this the “categorical imperative” which means that, because our reason tells us that something should be done or avoided, we know what is ethically right or wrong 1. So why is there so often disagreement between what is ethical or unethical in science and the arts? One reason for these strong differences in opinion is becaus...
Ethical judgements often add complex implications to the pursuit of knowledge, regardless of the area of knowledge. In the areas of the arts and natural sciences, ethics can pertain in diverging ways. For the arts, ethics often comes into question when determining whether or not it is worthwhile to sacrifice ethics for artistic choices and messages. For the natural sciences, in contrast, ethics is often debated in the pursuit of new knowledge. There are many different criteria to when it comes to the ethical justification of knowledge, all based on different perspectives; whether these judgements have a direct impact in knowledge production or come into play in hindsight depends largely upon how ethics is perceived.
A disturbing thought about man’s ethical barometer is that most of the theories, categories and principles emanate from the point of man’s reason. There is a cause to shudder at the thought of man as the absolute authority of what is right and wrong; what is ethical and what is not. Born into a sinful nature, man will ultimately make decisions that will lead to a moral philosophy that is shaky at best. Even philosophers with the best of intentions fall short to God’s model for the order, organization, and meting out of ethical actions. Because of man’s finite vision of what should be done to improve the present situation, mankind will always be found lacking in making the best ethical decisions; not being able to see the long term outcome and the impact those decisions and actions would have on others in the world.
Ethics are basically the procedures of personal acts that are based on ideas or a person, about what is ethically good or bad and they are range of statistics that involves these statistics. So basically, ethics are rules a person sets for himself or herself about what is ethically right or wrong. They involve legal issues and if something is illegal, it does not always mean that it is unethical, consequently if something is ethical, it does not mean it is legal.
Production of knowledge is generally seen in a positive light. However, when ethics and morality become involved in the process of production, judgements will undoubtedly be made that may seem to limit the availability of that knowledge. Ethical judgements are made by the combination of a knower, his or her standard of value, and the situation itself. In the field of the arts and natural sciences, ethics plays a crucial role in the extent one may possibly be allowed to go to when discovering new knowledge. Reason and emotion are important ways of knowing that help guide knowers in making certain moral decisions. Both ways of knowing can be associated with teleological or deontological arguments; the ethics are based on either an objectives-focused or obligations-focused mindset. In this essay, I will be discussing the limitations set on both the arts and the natural sciences as areas of knowledge. To what extent do ethical implications hinder the way art can be produced or the methods involved in expanding society’s knowledge of science?
As a branch of philosophy, ethics investigates the questions “What is the best way for people to live?” and “What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances?” In practice, ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality, by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. As a field of intellectual enquiry, moral philosophy
A person making an ethical judgment uses reason to decide what is the best alternative to resolve one problem or to determine that one alternative is morally right and another alternative morally wrong. In short, ethical judgment is a process of considering several alternatives and choosing the most ethical one. In the natural sciences there are always ethical norms that limit how knowledge can be produced. In the natural sciences, experimentation is an important method of producing knowledge but ethical judgments can limit the use of this method.
Ethics is the study of moral values and the principles we use to evaluate actions. Ethical concerns can sometimes stand as a barrier to the development of the arts and the natural sciences. They hinder the process of scientific research and the production of art, preventing us from arriving at knowledge. This raises the knowledge issues of: To what extent do moral values confine the production of knowledge in the arts, and to what extent are the ways of achieving scientific development limited due to ethical concerns? The two main ways of knowing used to produce ethical judgements are reason, the power of the mind to form judgements logically , and emotion, our instinctive feelings . I will explore their applications in various ethical controversies in science and arts as well as the implications of morals in these two areas of knowledge.
Art is limited in a very large number of ways by the ethical judgements we make, but it is also often brought into existence as a result of our morals and emotions. These judgements seem to handicap the production of knowledge of and through art, but they are also vital to it. This is a sign that abandoning our morals would be difficult, but impractical for the arts. For science, however, abandoning these morals to avoid the obstacle of ethical judgements would allow us to understand much more than we do today, and even more than we did hundreds of years ago; however, these judgements also keep our developments in check. They may prevent some good, but they definitely prevent irreversible harm as well. It is clear that ethics has many drawbacks, but it is a necessary element of our lives.
To the great extent, ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. But in my opinion such limitations are essential, while people need to be to some extent controlled. Boundaries are needed because giving people too much freedom and power is very dangerous. The only problem with ethical judgements is that the perception of something wrong or right differs among the people. I think that this comes from the inside, generally there are some “informal laws” on how to behave, what is good and bad, but this is a personal matter of every single person which comes from those “laws” he or she accepts and rejects.
In this way expert opinions are only important in the Areas of Knowledge that they study and very rarely cross over. An expert’s opinion in the Arts and Ethics areas of knowledge are often more feeble because ‘knowing’ in these areas is generally determined by personal emotion rather than reason or language like