How Science Engages with Ethics and Why It Should: An Interdisciplinary Approach

We live in an era of extreme claims versus weak consensus on issues critical to the public. Is climate change a hoax, or is it destroying our planet? Were the vaccines and social distancing measures of COVID-19 designed to protect us, or were they an invasion of our liberty? How do we determine the validity of these claims and others like them? Can we find a reliable middle ground leading to policies that help everyone?

How Science Engages with Ethics and Why It Should makes an impassioned plea for a scientific analysis of ethics, discussing what such a method is, why we need it, and what it can offer that other methods cannot.

With contributions from leading thinkers across a range of disciplines, Part 1 explores the challenges facing scientists and how to establish ground rules that will both protect human subjects and guide researchers in the future. Part 2 explores the importance of evidence-based science for topics such as climate change, social care, political polarization and rational decision-making, showing how even good science can go wrong, at times contributing to disastrous effects.

At the cutting edge of its discipline, How Science Engages with Ethics and Why It Should provides a compelling case for demanding evidence-based analysis to form the foundation of the discussions and policies that affect our very lives.

Jeffrey Barratt, Peter Ditto, Jessica Maria Gonzalez, James W. Hicks, Mahtab Jafari, Rose McDermott, B.W. Sarnecka, Roxane Cohen Silver, Brian Skyrms, Teresa Sabol Spezio, Lawrence Sporty, Kyle Stanford, Ashley J. Thomas, James Tran, and the assistance of Ali Ansari, Kendrick Choi, Hannah Dastgheib, David Han, Nate Kang, Alexis Kim, Connor Lee, Michelle Lee, Lauren O’Neill, Samuel Shih, and Anqi Wang.

Kristen Monroe is the Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and founding Director of its Ethics Center. With 20 books on politics, ethics, psychology, and science, Monroe is best known for her award-winning trilogy on altruism and moral choice. Her scholarly honors include numerous awards from the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) and the American Political Science Association (APSA), plus fellowships to The American Academy in Berlin, Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Presidency of the ISPP, and Vice-Presidency of the APSA.