The socio-ethical phenomenon of obesity as a global issue

The article discusses the global problem of obesity as a socio-ethical phenomenon in the context of UNESCO’s program on bioethics, the ethics of science and artificial intelligence. The article also explains the stigma of obesity, or, in other words, the discrediting social identity assigned to an overweight person, and describes the consequences of such stigmatization. The author explores the socio-ethical causes of obesity and points out the link between obesity and some of the challenges addressed by the Sustainable Development goals, including hunger and social inequality.

On the concept and connotation of science popularization ethics

Some ethical norms should be followed in science popularization. Such norms are related to, but also different from, the ethics of science and technology, communication and education. This paper explores the definition of science popularization ethics in Chinese and foreign literature and reflects on the concept and connotation of the ethical norms that should be followed in science popularization in China. It suggests that the ethical norms that people should follow in science popularization should be defined as ‘science popularization ethics’ in China.

Down to Earth: History and philosophy of geoscience in practice for undergraduate education

Undergraduate geoscience students are rarely exposed to history and philosophy of science (HPS). I will describe the experiences with a short course unfavourably placed in the first year of a bachelor of earth science. Arguments how HPS could enrich their education in many ways are sketched. One useful didactic approach is to develop a broader interest by connecting HPS themes to practical cases throughout the curriculum, and develop learning activities that allow students to reflect on their skills, methods and their field in relation to other disciplines and interactions with society with abilities gained through exposure to HPS. Given support of the teaching staff, the tenets of philosophy of science in practice, of conceptual history of knowledge, and of ethics of science for society can fruitfully and directly be connected to the existing curriculum. This is ideally followed by a capstone HPS course late in the bachelor programme.

Issues concerning the science communication ethics of science and technology museums

This paper reviews the acceleration of what is known as the ‘museumization’ process globally in the context of the New Museum Movement, and the particular mission of science and technology museums in representing scientific culture. It analyses the significance of science and technology museums in presenting critical concepts of contemporary science and technology, such as the controversies and uncertainties of science, as well as the diverse subjects that need to be involved in the process of representation, thereby underscoring the complexity of the ethical issues of science communication faced by science and technology museums.

Synthetic Biology: Old and New Dilemmas—The Case of Artificial Life

This article aims to examine some of the ethical questions emerging from the use of already existing biotechnological tools and the issues which might occur by synthetic biology’s potential future possibilities. In the first part, the essence of synthetic biology and its relation to the contemporary biotechnological research is analyzed. In the second part, the article examines whether the new biotechnological inventions pose new or revive old moral questions about the ethics of science, engineering, and technology in general. After briefly addressing some of the various issues which are raised by experts, philosophers, but also the general public, concerning synthetic biology in general, it focuses on the topic of “artificial life creation” and presents moral reasons which may or may not allow it. The topic is approached by referring to consequentialist, deontological, but also, virtue theory arguments for and against it and the possibility of a partial permission of “artificial life” experiments, asking whether the benefits outweigh the risks and moral implications is explored. Finally, it proposes an argument in favor of the future exploration of biological innovation, underlying the need for a more balanced access to its beneficial results.

Ethos of Science

Analyzed is the problem of principles of scientific ethos in educational environment of university. At present, as a result of the activation of youth (student, master's and postgraduate) science — our scientific future — it is important to instill in people entering science the principles of the scientific ethos, which make it possible to build productive relationships within the scientific community, as well as between the scientific community and society. Of course, the topic “Science and Ethics” is relevant for mature scientists as well. The article is a brief outline of the ethics of science as one of the areas of applied ethics. The 4 norms of the scientific ethos of CUDOS proposed by R. Merton are considered: Communalism: the belief about the common heritage of scientific knowledge; Universalism: assessment of the truth of the provisions should be independent of titles, gender, age, race of scientists; Disinterestedness: the primary stimulus of a scientist’s activity is a disinterested search for truth; Organized Skepticism: Organized skepticism, the duty of the scientist is to objectively assess the soundness of what his colleagues have done and the reliability of his results. Using the golden rule of morality, additional norms have been formulated: not to commit plagiarism; do not falsify data; not to interfere with the publication of the works of opponents; 8) not hush up arguments that contradict their concept; prevent undeserved co-authorship; in the references, cite only works related to the essence of the problem; fairly evaluate the contribution of employees to the overall work; it is inadmissible to present a compilation instead of a scientific work; not to publish papers on a problem in which you do not have sufficiently complete information; give an adequate assessment of the work of colleagues; do not sell their authorship; be humble and respect opponents; and be intolerant of violation of the norms of the scientific ethos by others. In the context of the development of applied science and its commercialization, a tendency arose to abandon the Merton norms. The norms of the PLACE system by J. Ziman are described (property rights, patents; solving local problems; setting the research goal by authoritarian authorities; work to order; work of a limited circle of experts). When abandoning Merton’s norms, the peculiarities of fundamental and applied science are not taken into account. The article shows that Merton norms and additional norms apply to classical science and modern fundamental science. Ziman highlighted norms, as well as additional norms refer to applied science. Additional norms apply to both fundamental and applied science, and these are general norms of modern science. It is suggested that on the basis of the convergence of fundamental and applied research, a single ethos of science can be formed.

SOCIAL VALUE OF ETHICAL PROBLEMS FOR MODERN GENETIC RESEARCH IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY

This paper presents the multivariate analysis of the bioethical criterion for the understanding the social value of genetic research in medicine and biology. From the point of view of moral assessment, a historical retrospective and dialectics of genetic technologies’ development and their application in medical practice are given. The presented data indicate the social and moral conflict of the unbalanced genetic technologies’ using and the way for ethical and normative solution. The leading approaches to the search for optimization of genetic technologies based on improving the ethics of science, education, public confidence, and ensuring the ethical component of legislative regulation are considered. The construction of the work and the discussion of the results confirms by real and promising examples of genetic technologies: perinatal and pre-implantation diagnostics; genetic banks; editing the human genome. The specificity of the work lies in the direct long-term author's participation in the creation of an ethical concept of genetic research in medicine and biology on the national, regional and international levels

The Ambivalence of the Scientific Ethos Is Irresistible

Ambivalence of the scientific ethos (R. Merton) today is still a topical issue under the escalation of contradictions between science and society. The autonomy of science, the solidarity of scientists in the face of internal and external challenges are the issues decisions of which are burdened by a number of antinomies such as “profession – vocation”, “individual – collective” and “a priori – a posteriori”. Is it possible to rid the ethics of science, designed to develop and represent moral norms for the scientific community, from this ambivalence? The article offers a sketch of the ethics of science, combining virtue epistemology with some ideas of J. Rawls and W. Pareto. It shows that the ethical assessment is irreparably present in the structure of roles and statuses in the scientific community, and epistemic virtues are intertwined with moral ones. In terms of this, ambivalence is a form of problematization inherent in any ethical discourse. Hence the task of the ethics of science is not to prescribe norms of behavior to a particular agent, but to explicate conditions of moral freedom.