History, Ethics, and Identity Seminar Series

Abstract:

Virtue ethics traditions in moral philosophy hold as central to living ethically the development of good character traits, in contrast to those traditions that prioritize following moral rules or principles. With respect to scientific practice, social scientists and philosophers have found virtue ethics a productive framework for exploring the importance of character traits, habits, and dispositions to how scientists create and maintain robust, successful, trusting and trustworthy working communities. In this talk I introduce the scientific virtue framework through examples drawn from my experiences working closely with ecologists at La Selva Biological Research Station in Costa Rica, and suggest that it provides both an important critique of current prevalent approaches to responsible conduct of research training and points to how this education may be productively strengthened.

About the Series:

The History, Ethics, and Identity (HEI) Seminar Series aims to bring speakers to Caltech to give lectures on their work on the topics of history, ethics, and identity as they pertain to STEM.