PHIL 3570 - Research Ethics

Scientific research has become an international, collaborative, well- and widely-financed industry. This reality of modern research raises a variety of ethical issues and questions: Who will be listed as an author on collaborative research, and how will the names be ordered? Can research sponsored by private corporations be trusted as being as reliable as federally-funded research? Can a researcher balance the conflict of interest between seeking scientific truth and seeking potential profit? To what extent is scientific research shaped by political, economic, socio-religious, and/or institutional pressures? To what extent can/does science shape politics, economics, socio-religious worldviews, and/or institutions? How can humans or non-human animals be ethically incorporated into research? When does relying on the previous research of others become plagiarism? A professional researcher will likely encounter one or all of these issues. In this course we will look closely at these sorts of topics, and the philosophical and ethical issues that surround science as a social, and human institution.