On Science’s Internal Morality

            On Science’s Internal Morality

 

            Can science answer moral questions? Some say yes, others say no; I say that science has its own internal morality. That is inevitable; science is a social endeavor, and therefore requires its own social norms in order to survive.

             Science's internal moral values include honesty, self-honesty, precision, clarity, logical rigor, skepticism, curiosity, open-mindedness, respect for evidence, irreverence for illogical authority, and much else.

             Science enforces its internal values by reward and punishment; that's normal for a morality. Some of these values are in conflict (e.g. open-mindedness and logical rigor); that too is normal for a morality.

             So there's no such thing as value-free science, nor should there be. But science's internal morality, though real, is not universal; other vocations have different moralities. Irreverence for illogical authority, for instance, is not well regarded in religion or the military.