Abstract
Moral rules provide the baseline for ethics, proscribing unacceptable behavior; moral ideals inspire us to act in ways that improve the human condition. Whatever the moral ideals for pure research, science has a practical side so it is important to find a moral ideal to give guidance to more applied research. This article presents a moral ideal for use-inspired research based on Norman Care’s idea of shared-fate individualism This ideal reflects the observation that all human lives, both present and future are tightly coupled and, as a result, research projects should be chosen, where possible, with the goal of service to others. Together with the ideals of the habit of truth and the gift economy, shared-fate individualism provides the basis for a humane ethics of science.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Brian P. Coppola, Roger Jones, Susan Kovac, Christopher Pynes, Donna Sherwood, Janet Stemwedel, and the members of the University of Tennessee History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Discussion Group (Stephen Blackwell, Heather Douglas, Millie Gimmel, Denise Phillips, and Ted Richards) for useful comments on earlier versions of this article.
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Kovac, J. Moral Rules, Moral Ideals, and Use-Inspired Research. SCI ENG ETHICS 13, 159–169 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-007-9013-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-007-9013-x