OTA existed precisely because Congress felt research and innovations ought to be conditioned on the public interest, that facts and values should be taken into account together. It is that the survival of our species, Homo sapiens, is the necessary and indispensable prerequisite to the whole human enterprise, including both the sciences and humanities. On ethical grounds, we are told, one should simply not go there. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, M22 | HL: Physics, Econ, Chem, Math AA, SL: Eng A Lit, MandarinB, M22 | [subjects]Econs,Psych,Eng L&L HL,German B, Math AA, ESS SL, M22 | [HL: VA, Psych, Eng LL//SL: ESS, Math AI, Hindi]. It was certainly not a scientific statement; it was an act of faith, an auto de fe, and I was not inclined to take it lying The best place on the human body to put the electrodes, for example, how to judge the precise current to use, depending on ones perception of the subjects reaction? Anybody can scour the pages and cross-references of McGraw-Hills Yearbook of Science and Technology or The New York Times Index to the News and tie together a frightful story, making the kind of hazards our pioneer forebears had to live with seem like small potatoesindeed. (We will have to allow, of course, for knowledge that comes by chanceserendipity when it is welcome and bad when it isnot). Seeking to know how to destroy the biosphere would be wrong. It means, of course, that we ought not to harm human beings, except when it is done as the lesser evil in a trade-off (as insurgery). May we say that we ought to know anything we can learn? Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? In the last analysis the case for humanism is pragmatic andtotal. Things are good for whatever value they have for human beings, even if for only one human being. I would say no. large. I have coined the term ethimetrics for the task of consequential reasoning combined with measured values, as the way to approach problems of justice and relativity in our modern rapid transport, mass society of science andtechnology. I evaluate consequences by whether they yield human benefits. I already turned in my 2 previous exhibits and received a grade of 8/10 for both exhibits, and they were both marked by different teachers (because I had a sudden class change). It is not unethical to take an interest in things that some, or perhaps most human beings find disgusting. Before 1903, Russell devoted some of the energy that he could spare from German Social Democracy, the foundations of mathematics and the philosophy of Leibniz to working out a meta-ethic of his own. Whether a thing is good or bad, or an act is right or wrong, would depend on the foreseeable consequences. One is the fact that science is so linked to technology that when the public interest is affected whatever gains or losses can be imputed to the one can be imputed in some measure to the other. But was it? One might argue that some knowledge should not be sought because it could do more harm than good to society. Notwithstanding these qualifications, we believe that the onus should be on authors to explain why they have not sought and/or obtained ethics approval and the default position should be that such research is not published even if this means losing opportunities to disseminate information. The theme assists students in establishing links and connections with the object. I am sorry what is a TOK Exhibit? But what about the methods of real life torture? Underpinning TOK is the knowledge framework, which has four elements: Too often people think that to be a pure scientist, searching for knowledge so basic and unknown that you hardly know exactly what it is you are looking for, is to be Promethean willing to search out the as yet unknownbut let it come whatever it is. Ethics. Although on their own part the biologists doubted that the fear of recombining DNA was realistic, if it could be shown that there was even a probability of disaster they were prepared to stop the research, stop seeking such knowledge. Has anyone done the same and received a decent grade? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge. with a great population of young bodies and senile minds. I picked this prompt quite arbitrarily and just because I found it interesting, but I've recently seen on this sub-reddit that the ethics topic is highly recommended to not be written about, because it can get touchy, get a bit too far away from TOK concepts, is hard to come meaningful conclusions, and is a difficult topic overall that students struggle to represent correctly. Understanding TOK as a methodology is very important, for it establishes the concurrency of learning with other IB courses. OR Who owns knowledge? Nonetheless, although business and technology are not coterminous they have become symbiotic functionally. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, a humanist, a nonscientist, might have something worthwhile to say sometimes about technical decisions. The first was that there must be a clear danger, and the second was that the danger must be present, not a merely speculative forecast of the sort used in slippery slope objections to innovative newknowledge. My friend described his stance as Promethean. Ethics involves a discussion of the way we ought to live our lives, the distinctions between right and wrong, the justification of moral . of science and its practical partner technology there are two things which ethnically speaking seem to be fundamental. A part of the absolutists case for knowledge is that to question it is, after all, merely academic since we cannot suppress or reject knowledge anyway, even if we wanted to. Now at last I have used the language appropriate to any claim that knowledge is good in itself and needs no moral justification. OR Who owns knowledge? Geniuses don't create truth, they just discover it - and that goes for evil geniuses as well. Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? how to apply SPCM to a process, continue the flow chart from Week 1 and identify variances within a process. As in the presentation? If a 15 year old girl wants to marry a person whom she loves, shouldn't she be allowed that choice? The private interest has to be weighed within the socialcontext. Science and technology are partners in a process which can lead to evil as well as good consequences for human beings. Consent is a big concept of ethics that has recently become more and more important in today's society, knowing if something was made with or without consent helps judge an action morally correct or wrong. Appraising consequences usually comes down to a relativistic calculation of value pluses and minuses in outcomes; very seldom is there a simple and exclusive cause-and-effect choice of means and ends. share, ethical responsibility still exists - just in an other way as the notion of what our ethical responsibility actually is would change. This ethics requires moral agents to make a kind of impact study before theyact. One is values (What do I or we want?) and the other is obligation (What ought I or we to do?). Actually, that kind of blind truth seeking is the exact opposite ofPromethean. On the one hand I attack scientists for giving knowledge an absolute valueknowledge for its own sakewhile on the other hand, as a humanist, I raise up another absolutehuman well-being for its own sake. It is true, I suppose, that in a religious world view the human race could survive its extinction. Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? For this exhibition, the TOK prompt I chose was "Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? The Science and Values Debate. What are the most important influences on an individual's perceptions of ethical behavior? It might be objected, perhaps, that I have committed myself to a fatal contradiction. Sometimes we have to choose some peoples interests rather than othersfor example, by adhering to the democratic principle that if push comes to shove the interest of the many should prevail over the few. The TOK essay is of 10 marks, externally assessed which counts for 67% of the TOK total score. Today, the only examples one can think of where it is unethical to take an interest in photographs with sexual content, is where the subject has been exploited or abused. I do want to know. We could stop worrying about our future, or our childrens, or human destiny in the Before I go any further, then, I should plainly state the premise from which I approach questions of the public interest or, in a less politically flavored phrase, the social good. Knowledge is a seamless robe, a single tapestry. The ethical obligation to weigh consequenceswhat I have just referred to as a calculation of pluses and minuses in outcomesplaces on conscientious persons the serious burden of relativities. Im pretty sure you can find all you want to know on Google, but perhaps in the future it will be made illegal to publish the information, in case it is used by terrorists. For my TOK Exhibit, I chose prompt 16: should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? This allows finding the solution to seemingly insoluble problems. Science is the primary source of both the triumphs and tragedies of technology. I am myself by training geared to philosophy, especially moral philosophy or ethics. When an ethical dilemma occurs, involved individuals must choose between wide varieties of ethical principles and weigh which ones should be emphasized. The TOK exhibition requires students to write not more than 950 words on the three TOK exhibition objects chosen. In conclusion, it should be stressed that individuals possessing knowledge should take ethical and moral responsibility for their actions. My exhibition focused mostly on three ethical schools of thought - utilitarianism, deontological ethics and hedonism. I dont want these things to be forgotten, erased from human memory as if they never happened, even though such knowledge can be put to bad use. Topic: laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; 11) In your opinion, why is child marriage considered as illegal and unethical? It follows from this that there is some merit in the charges often brought against science in the public forum, especially that science is indifferent to its applications; that it seems sometimes to prostitute itself to industry and government in order to get funds, andfinally and at bottomthat it is dangerous because its first loyalty is to knowledge, not topeople. 13. I'm so confused what is the TOK Exhibit? On this relative basis sterilization could be judged consequentially to be right, morally acceptable, at least in somecases. Art is a very intellectual way of expressing knowledge, but is left to interpretation of the viewer. We can dispense with names. Reason is indeed essential to creative living and a sine qua non of humanness, but reason is not the whole of our understanding: it has its limitations. As a value assertion this was both moralistic and absolutistic. Boundaries: ethical guidelines, pressure imposed on by leading parties like governments, the law and religion. 19. Ethics Question - Standard I(B) and IV(C), Im sorry but how has no one made a meme with this text book. In recent years I have often quoted DeWitt Stettins counsel, when the flap about DNA flared up. grounds on which they reject it have never been fully enough spelledout. How can a researcher avoid noticing differences even if he/she refrains on ethical grounds from putting biro to paper? Along with this, they placed a written analysis explaining how the objects connected to their prompts. All knowledge is not equal, and there are innate risks involved in even attempting to pursue certain kinds of knowledge. So although we may not always we share knowledge, it seems that The idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has come in the forefront both theoretically and practically by having great attention on discussing issues within the boundary of . (In their time and place they were not compelled to deal with the problems of cultural pluralism and differing values as we are in our modern social potpourrian open society which forces modern Americans to twist and turn around almost every policyproblem.). So much so that the old saying fits, If you arent confused you simply dont understand the problem. Two hundred years ago the canny Scot David Hume made it clear that what is does not determine what ought to be, and ever since philosophers have been arguing about what his point really means. For a short while we are able to forget that we, too, are going to die some day, possibly in terrible pain. And Can new knowledge change values and beliefs? In the earlier statement I had supposed he was only decrying a complacent indifference to ignorance. It's so confusing because there aren't resources from past IB students to look up to, and the rubric/instructions are so vague :( and none of my school's TOK teachers know how to work this new curriculum either. However, my school's TOK teachers are really not the best and I'm worried the grades they give me are wholly not reflective of IB standards. Some aspects will link to just one prompt and some may have a closer link to several of the 35 IA prompts. I would say no. I present you; some insightful messages from fellow IB Did anyone else know that AA math exam is tomorrow? Teen-agers in high school say, Why not cheat on exams? And why wrong? It was the scientists themselves who called a halt, not the hysterics who were crying havoc if they went ahead. Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers? Most would agree that there is scientific research that is inherently unethical and ought not to be pursued. By definition and tradition the humanities are oriented to individual human beings, but this also entails their ornnium-gatherumthe common interest. Everybody else does. The heart of the matter is, If you dont do it, somebody else will, and as a companion buttress, Since somebody is going to do it, I might as well do itmyself.. I've already chosen 2 objects and written 2 commentaries, and I am getting started on my 3rd object. Lets not get bogged down, however, in the problematic issues of nuclear warfare. The word 'ethics' comes from the Greek word 'ethos', meaning custom or behaviour. That is not the only thing I value, but I value it enough to despise those who would limit freedom on the grounds that its best/ safest/ more ethical not to know. A photographer I admire is Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). The human side or the nonhuman side? Sir George Pickering, Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford, decided the prospect was horrifying because, unlike other body cells, brain cells cannot regenerate and the longevitists would therefore end up Perhaps my imagination is just not good enough to come up with an example where it would be ethically wrong, in principle, to enquire, to seek out, to view some work of art by virtue of its content, leaving aside the cases I have discussed. 1 a) Choose the IA prompts from the list of prescribed IA prompts (see below). Both releasing information and concealment of specific facts can have severe outcomes for those who hold this knowledge, as well as for other individuals who depend on this information. As a teenager, I had a laboratory at home complete with glassware and fume cupboard. If we conclude that there is some knowledge we should not pursue on ethical grounds, how can we determine the boundaries of acceptable investigation within an area of knowledge? The chosen object allows students to discuss the point of view, not in isolation, but as a whole. TOK therefore develops higher order critical thinking skills, asking students to step outside their academic subjects and consider them from a metacognitive perspective, coming to an understanding of their scope, underlying methodology, limitations and wider ethical dimension. Copyright 2022 The Virginia Quarterly Review. Nowadays, it is common to ask about ethnicity in job applications, healthcare provision etc. and finite are demonic, to use a classical word for it. Is there such a thing as forbidden knowledge, such a thing as undesirable inquiry? Why do we seek knowledge? If we conclude that there is some knowledge we should not pursue on ethical grounds, how can we determine the boundaries of acceptable investigation within an area of knowledge? I've seen a couple posts here talking about it and I'm completely done my TOK course but have never heard of this. My exhibition focused mostly on three ethical schools of thought - utilitarianism, deontological ethics and hedonism. But we are talking about the arts. There are also agreed standards of proof and argument that are different in each Area of . Imagine science without electronic microscopes or microscopy without science. Its only real appeal is to a handful of true believers who still wait hungrily and literally for the end of theworld. Scientists and science-oriented people should back off and take a hard look at the notiona fairly commonly held one that there is no such thing as forbidden knowledge or, in another kind of rhetoric, that knowledge is subject to no limiting principles (except, of course, that it be correct). 17. Those of us in the humanities sector too often find that individual scientists seem to speak and deport themselves in a very priestly style, a sort of New Priesthood, as when Lewis Thomas or Russell Brain say it is wrong to subject knowledge to any moral restraints. They do not themselves assign their value to themselves. awh nooo, i've also chosen this as my IA prompt and am also looking for a 3rd object ahah but i've just seen this post TT hopefully we still get decent grades for choosing these prompts ahh goodluck dudeee. To avoid any evil, to seek the good, to keep the mind pure: this is the essence of the Buddha's teaching. GOVERNMENT NOTICE! The TOK guide provides the learning partners with a choice of 35 prompts about knowledge. Turkish tea, a lensball, a family photograph and a solar panel driven miniature Albert Einstein were a few of the objects that the learning partners chose to display. need numeracy as well as literacy, to use a phrase coined by Garrett Hardin in his Filters against Folly. The same thing applies to industrial researchers, for example in pharmaceuticals. This religious speculation, if it were to serve as ones bottom line or the ultimate basis of a value system, has to be believedbelieved, that is, in the genuine sense that those who profess it would be ready to act on itas the Donatists did when they removed themselves from this life for the sake of life inheaven. Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? I accept that there will be some borderline cases, but this is a common problem in many ethical questions. Or does ethical error only come in when the answers are collated? Of course, it would be unethical to actually torture people in order to get this knowledge, but much research can be done exploring the work of others, for example, by going through documents left undestroyed by the East German Stasi, or the Nazi concentration camp doctors. Evacuate the Premises! Over against this notion of intrinsic value is the consequential kind of ethics. I am speaking not only of the humanistic disciplines but more significantly as a humanist, by confession. What examples could one find in the domain of what you term the arts? For example, faced with the contamination of wild life by PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which led to the Toxic Substances Act of 1979, they might say, Oh, well, thats not the fault of science; blame the industrial technologists, or the corporations that hire them. This line is almost naively defensive; psychologically it is a patent instance ofdisplacement. 1 The etymology of inchoo seems to point towards the Greek ' ,' 'make an incision, slit somet ; 7 In doing so, pragmatism sets itself apart not only from objectivistic approaches in social philosophy, but also from deontological ethics in the tradition of Kant. ahahha thank you !! This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. And Can new knowledge change values and beliefs? You either buy it all or hide cowering in thecaves.. I'm quite concerned that this exhibition will end up bringing my TOK grade down if I submit it to IB just because I failed to represent ethics correctly, but I also really don't want to spare the effort of having to write 3 new commentaries on another prompt (added to the workload of all my other subjects). When Dr. Thomas spoke of the atom bomb he meant to suggest, I think, that nuclear power may well prove to be a blessing in the energy shortage now confronting our technological society, but beyond that he was presumably also implying either that the balance of terror in the possession of thermonuclear weaponry by rival superpowers will remain in status quo, or that in any case if first and second strike attacks were unleashed the human and material destruction would stop satisfactorily short of being catastrophic. Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? It will help you understand how to approach each of the titles (i.e. Peter Drucker, the doyen of industrial management consultants, has put it very bluntly. Somebody will be sure to say at this point that if I have any blame to lay about these things it should be put at the door of industry or commerce, not technologys door. As parties (if not accomplices) do they not share whatever blame or moral culpability might attach to marketedproducts? I am not going to recite a long list of the sins of science and technology. All rights reserved. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. What can an object tell you about the way knowledge is produced, acquired and interpreted? of the Greenhouse Effectholes in Each would be crippled without the other; each in its own way is a symbiont. Milgram experiment Second, science in its turn relies a great deal on technology for its apparatus, its research tools. :). No To a great extent IB has changed my thinking. Are there any limiting principles relevant when we seek to know things of which we are ignorant? Only this eschatological outlook could make sense of the moral claim that knowledge is good regardless of the consequences. Amongst some of the questions you find are: Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds? One evening a few years ago I heard our charming biology watcher, Lewis Thomas, say something as a visiting lecturer at Rice University in Houston that made my hackles rise. Philosophically speaking, scientists cannot ignore and violate the frontier between science andreligion. (2) the most effective solution is based on the situation. Once moral responsibility ceases to be a simplistic adherence to prefabricated rules based on the notion of intrinsic right and wrong, turning instead to consequences, the ethical problem becomes one of measurementof having to quantify qualities, so to speak, in order to weigh them against each other. The right to know what is already known seems on the whole well provided for in legislation and statute laws providing freedom of information, due regard for reasonable secrets, libel laws, and the like. This essay examines thatweb. Such gods, being outgrown, have always been cast aside. AnredeHerrFrau Humanists, to be sure, In the Western ethical heritage prudence has always been and still is a cardinalvirtue. That was the question. Which side do we stand on? (1) you cannot rely on one best way. Even Websters is guilty of it. Moore's Principia Ethica (1903). Remember that all three (images of) objects should relate to the same prompt. Replacing the previous, Presentation Assessment, the TOK Exhibition explores how TOK manifests in the world around us. episode in recent science history, and it provided us with a paradigm or model case. Or, to put it another way, is knowledge really an absolute good, subject to no limiting principles, subject to no values? They are worth something only because they are worth something to somebody, some sentientbeing. But I have also always contended that unloving or inhumane acts are immoral unless in an unusual or untoward situation where the predominant consequences would prove to be of a loving or caring nature. I have of course constantly insisted that there is no human act which is always wrong or without the possibility of being justified in conceivable circumstances, however rarely or atypically this might be the case. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Full-text available . There are some who say this, especially in the science-orientedpursuits. What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?
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