The ethics of Enlightenment in the foundations of modern science

Abstract

In the Age of Enlightenment, when each person, in the opinion of Kant, was called upon to “think independently”, a transition from the medieval “cult of faith” to the enlightened “cult of reason” was finally formed and the ethical foundations of modern science were laid. The ethos of modern science, as a set of moral imperatives of the scientific community, was reduced in the middle of the twentieth century to a specific set of norms which are currently being challenged in view of the transformation of science into a technological industry, removing the personal responsibility of a scientist for the results of his creativity. The institutionalisation of science in the context of the global world of universal competition leaves the scientist with a choice of “thinking for himself/herself” only through the moral feat of overcoming the evolving corporate system of abandonment of the ethical standards on which the foundations of science were once erected. In place of the ethos of the scientific era of Enlightenment must come the socially responsible ethos of the science of our day, followed by the ethos of Anthropos, which received its most significant development in the theonomic ethics of Russian religious thinkers. The ethics of Enlightenment, in particular the ethics of Kant’s categorical imperative, not only formed the image of modern technological civilisation, thus shaping the moral foundations of modern science, but still remains in demand owing to the boldness of scientific research, approaching the transcendental boundaries of local life which Kant so innovatively substantiated.