Abstract
Abstract. The ethical challenges facing contemporary science range from scientific misconduct to the rightful treatment of people, animals and the environment. In this work, we explore the role of virtue ethics, which concern the character of a person, in contemporary science. Through interviews with 13 scientists, eight of whom are geoscientists, we identify six virtues in science (honesty, humility, philia, innocence, generosity and reticence), paired with vices, and construct a narrative argument around them. Specifically, we employ the narrative structure of the late medieval poem The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, and draw on its moral universe to explore the scientific virtues. Using this narrative device, we make the case for virtue ethics being a reliable guide for all matters scientific. As such, this work lays out a modern code of conduct for science.
Highlights
We use the term science to denote the natural, physical and social sciences, but we wish to point out that many of the virtues and vices identified in this paper are pertinent to academic research and issues of research integrity as a whole
We have argued that virtue ethics provides an effective antidote for the ailments affecting modern science
Using the narrative structure of Dante’s Commedia, we explored six scientific virtues, their corresponding vices and various ethical approaches in science, some of which we consider to be misdirected
Summary
We will encounter characters from ancient Greek and Roman myth and philosophy, such as Aristotle, who will help us make our journey through the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso of science, and we will exercise literary freedom in projecting onto them modern scientific concerns. Considering the repeated calls for new regulations in genetic research (Nature, 2019b), the everlasting quest for new ways of measuring scientific success (Curry, 2018), and the ceaseless drafting of new codes of conduct for researchers (Hiney, 2018), science resembles that sick woman, forever tossing and turning through restless nights Dante recognised that his native Florence was in dire need of moral guidance and sought to save her through his writing. This is precisely the mission that provides impetus to this work
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