Ethical judgments limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and natural sciences. As there are certain ethical limitations regarding the write up of an experiment and the temptation to change or alter data and results, so too may a correlation be seen in the arts between the production of a given book and the desire of others to censor that book, limiting the dissemination of knowledge that the author hoped to attain as a result of these ethical considerations. In both instances, the desire to produce something great is tempered by the ethical considerations that must be undertaken in order to ensure that not only is the appropriate audience maintained, but also that the data present within the work is ethical in nature, and it is in this manner that the ethical judgments placed on the field, whether the arts or the natural sciences, that work to limit the production of knowledge.
There are several primary ethical considerations that must be taken into account when undertaking the research process in the natural sciences; these ethical limitations work to ensure that the experiment undertaken is not only truthful, but in full compliance with all the rules and regulations set forth by the organization the researcher is associated with. The primary ethical limitations and considerations that must be taken into account when completing any form of experiment or research include, but are not limited to, ensuring that no data is falsified or fabricated, that no data or interpretations of data are plagiarized, that a detailed documentary record of the research undertaken is maintained, and ensuring that approval of all co-authors of any body of work is obtained prior to submitting it for publication (Railsback, n.d.). There are times, however, when the natural sciences researcher may find these ethical limitations at war with the temptation to alter or falsify data and results in order to obtain the outcome they desired as opposed to the outcome that was received. The production of knowledge in the natural sciences may only occur if the true data is provided, for without the true results being presented, knowledge has not actually been produced. If knowledge is not produced, the research itself has been for naught; data that remains true to form, representative of the exact results received, produces knowledge by showing that a given hypothesis is true or false, allowing for the problem to continue to be studied in order to obtain an answer or allowing for additional studies to be undertaken in order to expand the body of knowledge that was created as a result of the hypothesis proven to be true. If the ethical judgment of the researcher is called into question as a result of “misconduct in science,” i.e. falsification or alteration of data, the entirety of the individual’s work is called into question, resulting in a decrease in the production of knowledge, discrediting the individual completely, as opposed to the increase of knowledge that could occur if the data was solid (Swazey, Anderson, & Louis, 1993).
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The question of ethical judgment and its application to the production of knowledge in the arts lends itself in a slightly different manner, in that it is not the researcher that strives to limit the production of knowledge, but rather an outside source working to limit the production and dissemination of knowledge to the general populace. Censorship is the “suppression of ideas and information that certain individuals find objectionable or dangerous” (ALA, 2013). “Censorship occurs when expressive materials, like books, magazines, films and videos, or works of art are removed, or kept from public access” or the access of certain individuals or certain types or groups of individuals (ALA, 2013). Books are a material often found to be banned; in fact, they are banned to such a degree that there has been an ever growing banned book list, one created on a yearly basis to notify the general public the name of the book that has been banned and the reason for its banning. Censorship is not an easy issue to address, and it must be said that the majority of individuals do not like the concept, save for those that are doing the banning (Cline, 2004), but as the Library of Congress showed in their exhibit entitled “Books that Shaped America” many of the books that have been banned have “had a profound effect on American life” and the shaping thereof (Banned Books Week, 2013). Looking to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a book published in 1965, this historical work, detailing the life story of Malcolm X, as told by Malcolm X, was banned because “objectors…called this seminal work a ‘how-to-manual’ for crime and decried (it) because of ‘anti-white statements’ present in the book” (Banned Books Week, 2013). This is what is said of a human rights activist, one “who has been called one of the most influential Americans in recent history” (Banned Books Week, 2013). In this manner, the ethical judgments of the critics, those who would rather bury the past, are working to halt the dissemination of knowledge by attempting to censor the book, attempting to remove it from curriculums, banning it from libraries and the like. These individuals fail to realize that in attempting to force their own ethics on others, becoming offended by the idea that historical events occurred, they are attempting to halt not only the dissemination of knowledge, but the production of knowledge as well. If individuals are prevented from reading this book, from understanding what truly was occurring during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the effects that it had on all peoples, and the lengths to which some individuals were forced to go as a result of the lengths that others took their hatred, there is nothing to prevent such events from occurring in the future. The knowledge that such discrimination is unacceptable will not be present, for those who would desire to censor the arts would have it wiped from history, and as the saying goes, those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.
“Recent times have seen a startling variety of events involving issues of free expression (Ward, p. 83), and the ethical judgments of some work to limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and natural sciences. By working to understand the effects of ethical judgments on the production of knowledge in the arts and sciences, it will become possible to work to remove such limitations on the dissemination of knowledge to all.
- ALA. 2013. Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A. [online] Available at: http://www.ala.org/
- Banned Books Week. 2013. Banned Books That Shaped America. [online] Available at: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
- Cline, A. 2004. Tough Questions About Censorship. [online] Available at: http://atheism.about.com/
- Railsback, B. n.d. Ethics of research. [online] Available at: http://www.gly.uga.edu/
- Swazey, J., Anderson, M. and Louis, K. 1993. Ethical Problems in Academic Research A survey of doctoral candidates and faculty raises important questions about the ethical environment of graduate education and research. American Scientist, 81 (6), p. 542.
- Ward, D. V. 1990. Philosophical issues in censorship and intellectual freedom. Library Trends, 39 (1), pp. 83–91.
