ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Virtue, The Missing Puzzle Piece in Ethics and History and Philosophy of Science?

• In Event: HPS Across Borders

English Abstract

The role of ethics in the field of HPS has been attracting more attention in recent years, especially regarding the question of normativity in scientific practices and communities of scientists. To what extent does scientific inquiry per se depend on ethics? Should different scientific disciplines be affected differently by ethical concerns and constraints? These are all worthy questions to consider. To date, however, the discussion in this area seems to presume exclusively a deontological understanding of ethics, i.e., a primarily rule-based framework, whereas another prominent perspective in ethics, namely virtue ethics, has been ignored.
Given the context, this paper proposes to examine the role of virtue ethics in HPS, featuring Aristotle (384-22 BC) and neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200). For both of them, ethics concerns more than merely right and wrong; rather, it is more generally about good and bad in relation to human nature. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines virtue as ‘a state of character… determined by a rational principle’ (II.6), by which definition he is able to include intellectual virtues such as what is commonly translated to “science” (epistêmê). Thus, even purely intellectual activities are also subject to the study of ethics. Zhu Xi, on the other hand, regards the investigation of nature as the surest way to deepen and broaden one’s ethical discernment and practice. This is, however, not an instrumental view of scientific inquiry, but rather a teleological anchor that justifies why scientific practices can be worthwhile for their own sake. With concepts such as intellectual virtues and teleology, virtue ethics can enrich the discussion of the relationship between ethics and HPS.

Author

• Joseph Zishang Yue, University of Oxford