Класическите основи в етиката на науката.
Classical Foundations of the Ethics of Science.

Rethinking Robert Merton’s Ethos

Summary/Abstract: The foundations of the ethics of science as a separate and particular research domain were laid in the 1930s by Robert Merton. He was the first to formulate the structure of the ethos of science as well as to present the first conjectures concerning the specific mode of action in science in terms of habits, collective expectations, incentives, encouragements, and the how these are built into the individual scientist as his/her “duty”. Unfortunately, the first elements of this foundation remained incomplete; Merton’s concept was poorly understood and later neglected, considered irrelevant to contemporary ethical practice. My research investigates the roots of Merton’s ethical categories in the process of knowledge production, in which the negative effects of the violation of these categories also occur. The article further demonstrates that the ethical norms are correlative with, and complementary to, the norms of knowledge production (the latter, similar to ethical norms, are tacitly shared and transmitted by tradition). Tentative steps are taken to reveal how the building of ethical norms takes place in the individual’s mind during his/her specialized education in science. The separate layers of Merton's integral ethical categories are identified in order to show that they regulate a larger cluster of violations than those listed by him. The rethinking of the classical ethical categories and their mode of action furthers the completion of the classical foundations of the ethics of science.

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