Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- 1 The Waxing and Waning of Faith in Science
- 2 Scientific Ideology and “Value Free” Science
- 3 What Is Ethics?
- 4 Ethics and Research on Human Beings
- 5 Animal Research
- 6 Biotechnology and Ethics I: Is Genetic Engineering Intrinsically Wrong?
- 7 Biotechnology and Ethics II: Rampaging Monsters and Suffering Animals
- 8 Biotechnology and Ethics III: Cloning, Xenotransplantation, and Stem Cells
- 9 Pain and Ethics
- 10 Ethics in Science
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Waxing and Waning of Faith in Science
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- 1 The Waxing and Waning of Faith in Science
- 2 Scientific Ideology and “Value Free” Science
- 3 What Is Ethics?
- 4 Ethics and Research on Human Beings
- 5 Animal Research
- 6 Biotechnology and Ethics I: Is Genetic Engineering Intrinsically Wrong?
- 7 Biotechnology and Ethics II: Rampaging Monsters and Suffering Animals
- 8 Biotechnology and Ethics III: Cloning, Xenotransplantation, and Stem Cells
- 9 Pain and Ethics
- 10 Ethics in Science
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Those of us who grew up during the 1950s and early 1960s can still vividly recall the seemingly unbridled enthusiasm that society displayed toward science and technology. Sunday supplements, radio, television, and newspaper advertisements, television and radio shows, world's fairs, comic books, popular science magazines, newsreels, and, indeed, virtually all of popular culture heralded the vision of a golden age to come through science. One popular Sunday evening program sponsored by Dupont featured Ronald Reagan promising – with absolutely no irony – “better things for better living through chemistry,” a slogan that evoked much hilarity during the drug-soaked 1960s.
In an age where TV dinners were symbols of modern convenience, rather than unpleasant reminders of cramped airplane trips, nothing seemed beyond the power of science. The depictions of science-based utopia – perhaps best epitomized in the Jetsons cartoons – fueled unlimited optimism that we would eventually all enjoy personal fliers, robotic servants, the conquest of disease. Expanding population? No problem – scientists would tow icebergs and desalinize water to make deserts bloom. The Green Revolution and industrialized agriculture and hydroponics would supply our nutritional needs at ever-decreasing costs. Computer gurus such as Norbert Wiener promised that cybertechnology would usher in “the human use of human beings.” We would colonize the asteroids; extract gold from the sea; supply our energy needs with “clean, cheap” nuclear power; wear disposable clothing; educate our children according to sound “science-based” principles; conquer disease and repair nature's deficiencies and mistakes.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Science and Ethics , pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006