Ethics and Science In Our Modern Society

ethics - (n) ethic \e-thik\ a set of moral principles; Synonyms: ethos, morality,
morals, norms, principles, standards. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Comparing our modern society with the one from lets say 2500 years ago we
can see lots of differences in the way people interacted with each other and in their
behavior towards Nature and God. These things have changed through time and led
to what we have now. Ethics were always present in human activity and
relationships and lots of writers have pointed this out. But nowadays have occurred
some problems in our lives (if considering life as a philosophical concept).
The bigger the science progress is, the bigger is the damage we bring to our
existence on Earth and morals. For instance now there is a huge scientific progress
as a result of intense activity in this domain. Thats why we have to confront some
issues in biological existence of our Planet and a lot of risks that may appear due to
these factors:
Biological warfare
Cloning
Artificial Intelligence
Science can and has actually gone- too far in the wrong direction. All these
innovations, in my personal opinion, could be a really useful thing for the mankind
but the main problem is the man himself. Lets take a closer look at biological
warfare. Science is used for political purpose to tear people apart, kill entire
populations and start wars. This biological warfare is really dangerous because of the
use of toxins of biological origin or microorganisms as weapons of war. Are peoples
opinions asked? Does anyone from the Government care about ethics, morals and
norms? No.
Secondly, science goes too far in human cloning, too. Cloning is when an
organism or cell, or group of organisms or cells, is produced asexually from one
ancestor or stock, to which they are genetically identical. It is taking the DNA of one
organism and replicating it sort of like making a twin. Not only is it unethical to
clone people, even animals, it is going against nature the nature that decides what
is made, what dies, and what is reborn. If this continues, then the food chain is going
to be broken and then poof! theres nothing. Also the clones, as human beings
will want their rights and the opportunity to make their own decisions and choices.
Everything can change as a consequence of lack of attention and empathy. Again, is
this ethical?
Lastly, another example of when science goes too far is in the creation of artificial
intelligence. It is the theory and development of computer systems that are able to
perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception,
speech recognition, decision-making and translation between languages. Robots
may one day be able to destroy or govern mankind. Robots can be made less
vulnerable than humans, less susceptible to diseases and injury, but can mimic
humans and perform the tasks they perform. This can get dangerous when humans
lose control and robots get smarter than we are. It might happen that these robots
supervise us and try to govern over us.
As shown above, even science can promote wrong conceptions of life and existence. I
was always a supporter of discovering and learning but these actions are way too
much. As I said in the beginning, our world has changed in the wrong direction. Lets
take as an example the scholars that lived BC or a short period after. All of them
were great scientists and have known more about our Universe and creation but
besides this, they were also great thinkers and philosophers. Thats why theyve
always considered being a human and thinking about ethics more important than
just the pleasure of the discovery.Even stoicism (a philosophical abordation of the
world described as logical and scientific) was worshipping the man and human race.
So could there be a society without ethics? No. My answer is a totally no. Its pretty
good that most of people still believe in God and think about their actions, being
scared of a possible punishment. So theism is useful.
But imagine if people (which is mostly possible to happen) acted like there were no
social norms, how would this world look? Probabily it would be consisted of
Nihilism and lack of understanding. Probabily, after a short period of time there
would be no people at all because nothings indestructible.
As a conclusion I want to say that despite the fact that knowledge is power it can be a
really dangerous weapon, causing great troubles and lots of issues in our lives.