5: The Virtues of Science
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Published:15 Feb 2021
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Special Collection: RSC eTextbook CollectionProduct Type: Textbooks
Good Chemistry: Methodological, Ethical, and Social Dimensions, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021, pp. 115-132.
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This chapter serves as an introduction and orientation for all the chapters in Part 2. In research ethics, both as guidelines and as a discourse tool, the virtue approach serves a good purpose. Here, we are not very concerned about ethics as a philosophical method of figuring out solutions for dilemmas and problems, but about compliance with moral conventions as part of a social contract. Some regard the ethical rules as trivial: everybody knows these rules! Yet, as practical experiences show, knowing the rules doesn't protect from acting against them. Thus, the main goal of this chapter is to present a basis for argumentation and goal-oriented discourse. We learn these virtues of science not primarily in order to develop our virtuous character, but in order to have a discourse strategy at hand that we can apply when we encounter situations of misconduct and violation of scientific integrity.