Ethical norms of science communication: Challenges and prospects

Svet­lana V. Shibarshi­na
Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod

Eth­i­cal norms of sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Chal­lenges and prospects

Abstract. This arti­cle stud­ies the major trends and prob-lems in the ethics of exter­nal sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion (sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion), which cur­rent­ly pos­sess­es no spe­cif­ic and gen­er­al­ly accept­ed code of eth­i­cal stan­dards. This is par­tial­ly due to the fact that the notion of ‘sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion’ refers to a quite inter­dis­ci­pli­nary field of aca­d­e­m­ic research, and also to a num­ber of relat­ed pro­fes­sion­al prac­tices. The first part of the arti­cle focus­es on how the nor­ma­tive sci­en­tif­ic ethos relates to sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The sec­ond part con­sid­ers the prob­lem of epis­temic trust and some pos­si­ble ways to solve it (epis­temic divi­sion of labor vs. epis­temic equal­i­ty and equal respect). The third part stud­ies the intri­ca­cies emerg­ing from apply­ing any eth­i­cal prin­ci­ple pre­scribed to sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion and demon­strates the pres­ence of ambiva­lence (the con­cept of R. Mer­ton) in the choice between the eth­i­cal imper­a­tives. Fur­ther­more, the author shows that the rel­e­vance of any prin­ci­ple for each case depends on the audi­ence and the aims of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. In describ­ing and eval­u­at­ing these issues, the author relies on the works by Robert Keo­hane and his col­leagues, as well as by Stephen John.

Key­words: sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion, ethics, epis­temic trust, social con­tract for sci­ence, epis­temic equal­i­ty

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20192344

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