The responsibility of scientists to society
My name: Johnathan Lau
My tutor’s name: Dr L Stella
Does scientist need to take more responsibility than a “normal man” in the
society? Do we have the responsibility to pass down our knowledge to the
others? Is it morally wrong for a scientist not taking his “extra
responsibility”? Should scientists be restricted due to political reasons?
Where should scientists stand in religious conflicts?
Most of the scientists in the world are getting most of their funds either
directly or indirectly from the government that mainly comes from the
taxation of the citizens. In a sense, the citizens are the ones that helped
us to carry on our research, so I think it is necessary for scientists to
explain what we have discovered to the general public that give
reasonable amount of detail and easy to understand. Also the more
advance or exact details should be make easily accessible if someone
wants to study it. As we have access to all these “extra” knowledge, we
should take more responsibility than ordinary people. For example, if I
make new discoveries and I don’t share it to the public. It might be only
sometime negligible but if you imagine every scientists is like, the human
race will not be able to develop. Therefore, I think it is one of our
responsibilities to share our discoveries to the society fully.
In a sense, sharing your discoveries and educating the next generation is
the same. If you don’t pass your knowledge to the next generation, very
soon the knowledge will be lost and it won’t help the society at all. In my
point of view, I think it is necessary to educate the next generation about
the “extra” knowledge you have in order for the society to develop faster.
The next generation is obliged to then expand on the knowledge that was
taught to them because by “rule of thumb” there is always an anomaly
that leads to more questions that would in turn lead the “next generation”
to carry on in expanding their knowledge.
There are some cases where scientists themselves are making up or
hiding couple of experimental data to backup their own theories. I think
this is really wrong. Firstly, it is stopping science to advance further or
into the correct path. Secondly, it is not doing what a scientist should do
for the society just for his or her own person purpose. Thirdly, in a lot of
cases, it is the further study of these irregular data points that make
some major breakthrough in science. Therefore, it is important to show
data exactly and fully as it is.
Lets take some extreme cases, nuclear scientists. Nuclear reactions are
the most destructive thing of mankind in the present time. It has both
immediate and long-term devastating affects on humans. It can wipe out
all the living organisms on Earth. With such dangerous item, I think
scientists must explain to everyone the risk and danger of carrying out
each nuclear reaction/experiment and try to reduce the risk to the
minimum. Scientists should take this responsibility for moral reason.
However, life doesn’t always go to plan. For example, during the Second
World War, the Americans dropped one of their nuclear bombs in Japan.
At the time, a lot of scientists including Albert Einstein explained the
destruction of the nuclear bomb and were strongly against the action; the
American government ignored the scientists and continued their plan.
Even at present time, the radiation is still affecting people living in the
area of the nuclear explosion. It is shocking to see that scientists have no
power at all in the society, so it is really hard for them to change the
world. Therefore, I think scientists should be given some power in the
society and their words should be taken into consideration when it comes
to issues like this.
There are also some situations where scientists are forced to do things
not at their own will, or be limited how much detail they can inform the
general public due to political reason. There are some typical examples,
like UFO and Area 51; it is something that is not open to the general
public. I think this is morally wrong, as we are all humans, we should all be
equal and we should all have the right to know what happened. In my
opinion, politic should not have any influence in science, we are living in a
world where there is freedom of speech, and this should also apply to
scientists. Therefore scientists can carry out their social responsibility
and let science advance the way it should be.
When scientists come to religious issues, there always seem to be a
conflict. The problem is most scientists think the existence of God is
something really vague. It is something that cannot be derives from
logical steps. However, at the moment there is not a proof or disproof of
the existence of God. As scientist, I think we should respect what other
people believe in and should not influence what people belief, what we
should do is try to discuss the probability of religious events passed down
the religions. I think people should also understand us that we are only
trying to explain things in logical steps and experimental proves. They
should not take what scientists say to religious issues too offensively as
we are not trying to disrespect any religion. We are just trying to say
what we think is “true”, so our belief should also be respected.
I believe scientists have a really important role in the society. The
importance of scientists might not be recognising by the society because
their job mostly contributes indirectly to the society. If scientists are
not doing what they suppose to do or not taking their “extra social
responsibility” I can’t imagine how the society will be like.