EDUCATION AND ETHICS PROGRESS

Diego Gracia, MD, PhDComplutense 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.

UNESCOGoals 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 EthicsCore curriculum in the area of ethicsStandards for evaluating teaching programsDeveloping a system of certification

MODELS OF TEACHING ETHICS

TWO TRADITIONAL MODELS

Two traditional and opposite models of teaching ethics:The indoctrination modelThe 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.