Transcript Presentation

EDUCATION AND
ETHICS PROGRESS
Diego Gracia, MD, PhD
Complutense University,
Madrid, Spain
UNESCO AND S&T
UNESCO has as one of its main goals the
promotion of social and ethical
responsibility in Science and Technology
(S&T).
 The need of education in “value”
questions, due to the fact that S&T aren’t
“value-free” but “value-laden” activities.

THE “VALUE-FREE” IDEAL


The “positivistic” ideal of the 19th and the 1st
part of the 20th Centuries: S&T as “value-free”,
“neutral” and “beyond good and evil” activities.
The II World War and the crisis of this model:
 Hiroshima
& Nagasaki and the crisis of Physical
sciences.
 Auschwitz & Dachau and the crisis of Biomedical
sciences.
SCIENCE AS POWER
Science means “knowledge”, and
knowledge means “power”, which can’t be
lefts in the sole hands of scientists.
 Society has the responsibility of controlling
S&T developments.
 The need of educating society in the
ethical implications of S&T.

UNESCO
Goals in this field
1999: Declaration of the World Conference
on Science and the Use of Scientific
Knowledge.
 The UNESCO’s World Commission on the
Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and
Technology (COMEST) has committed
itself to put this Declaration into action.

UNITED NATIONS
2002: UN World Conference on
Sustainable Development in
Johannesburgh.
 UNESCO was designed as the leader
agency for the promotion of the Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development,
starting in 2005.

COMEST
2003: COMEST Report The Teaching of
Ethics.
 The need of promoting ethics courses and
PhD degrees in Science and Ethics in
Universities.
 The need of supporting ethics teaching in
developing countries.

UNESCO EEP


Following all these recommendations, UNESCO
has started an Ethics Education Program (EEP)
in the biennium 2004-2005.
The program will initially focus on university
education, promoting:
 New
ethics teaching programs.
 Quality assessment & certification system.
 Schools of ethics (networks of experts).
 Others.
ADVISORY EXPERT
COMMISSION
Need of qualified experts in ethics
teaching to give advice.
 2004: Creation of the Advisory Expert
Commission for the Teaching of Ethics

 Core
curriculum in the area of ethics
 Standards for evaluating teaching programs
 Developing a system of certification
MODELS OF
TEACHING ETHICS
TWO TRADITIONAL MODELS

Two traditional and opposite models of
teaching ethics:
 The
indoctrination model
 The toleration model

Looking for a new and better model:
 The
deliberation model
INDOCTRINATION
To indoctrinate somebody means to make
him have a particular set of beliefs,
especially by teaching which exclude all
other points of view.
 The traditional way of indoctrinating
people has been catechisation.
 The traditional model in some religious,
philosophical, and political groups.

TOLERATION & NEUTRALITY
It was promoted by the Liberal thinkers of
the 17th and 18th Centuries.
 Personal beliefs and values are “private
matters”, and public teaching must remain
“neutral.”
 The only thing permitted is the so-called
“value clarification.”

MAX WEBER, 1919

“One can not demonstrate scientifically what the duty of
an academic teacher is. One can only demand of the
teacher that he have the intellectual integrity to see that
it is one thing to state facts, to determine mathematical
or logical relations or the internal structure of cultural
values, while it is another thing to answer questions of
the value of culture and its individual contents and the
question of how one should act in the cultural community
and in political associations. These are quite
heterogeneous problems. If he asks further why he
should not deal with both types of problems in the
lecture-room, the answer is: because the prophet and
the demagogue do not belong on the academic
platform.”

“The best lack all convictions, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity” (Yeats)
This model entered in crisis during the II World
War.
Values are not completely rational, but they
should be “reasonable”.
Therefore, discussion about values is possible
and necessary.
THE DELIBERATION
MODEL
DELIBERATION
Deliberation is the method of practical
reasoning.
 It is the way of analyzing the
reasonableness of our values and beliefs.
 Its goal is not to reach a consensus, but to
increase the practical wisdom or prudence
of our decisions.

DELIBERATION
PRECONDITIONS
The capacity of assuming that in value
questions nobody has all the truth.
 The possibility of thinking that the others
can help me find the way of being more
wise and prudent.
 The unusual capacity of listening the
others, those who don’t agree with my
values and points of view.

ARISTOTLE
Aristotle considered deliberation as the
method of ethics, and the way to take wise
decisions.
 “What we decide to do is what we have
judged to be right as a result of
deliberation.”

DELIBERATION AS ALTERNATIVE
Deliberation is the best alternative to
indoctrination and to neutrality.
 There is a plurality of values, and
homogeneity in this field is impossible.
 Only by testing the reasonability of our
values, can we be sure that they are, at
least, wise and prudent.

DELIBERATION AS DUTY
Deliberating with ourselves and with all
others is a moral duty.
 We all have the moral duty of assuming
the more reasonable moral values.
 Discussing all together, we will be capable
of establishing a core set of values
peacefully assumed by all.

THE METHOD OF DELIBERATION
Deliberation is an articulated method of
reasoning and taking decisions.
 It takes into account not only principles
and values, but also circumstances and
consequences.
 A wise decision must balance all these
elements, looking for the best possible
solution.

THE SOCRATIC PROCEDURE
Deliberation was the method used by
Socrates.
 Its goal is that everyone may give the best
of his self.
 This procedure, with was in its beginning
the real method of ethics, disappeared
shortly after, being substituted by the other
two: indoctrination and neutrality.

LOOKING FOR A DELIBERATIVE
SOCIETY
It is time to amend that situation and
promote its use, training people in the
deliberative skills from the very beginning,
in the years of primary school, until the
highest levels of the educational process.
 This should be the UNESCO’s lemma
during the decade of ethical education
which is now beginning.

DELIBERATIVE EDUCATION




UN have established the promotion of
“sustainable development” as one of its goals.
UNESCO should design a complementary
program, avoiding both extremes in value
education: indoctrination and value neutrality.
The Goal: Promotion of Sustainable
Development through Deliberative Education.
This is, at least, my proposal.