Technology, Transgenics and a Practical Moral Code

Most philosophers still like to feel that they have a special subject matter, well insulated from anything that the social scientists, and scientists in general, have to tell them. That is not healthy for philosophy; and it is all too likely to lead to an ethics that continues, as of old, to plead for its ultimates-the fact that one is totally ineffectual being decently concealed by an impressive terminology. (Stevenson 1963, pp. 114–5) Many so-called moral theories do not even attempt to explain or justify common morality but are used to generate guides to conduct intended to replace common morality. These p- posed moral guides, those generated by all of the standard consequentialist, contractarian, and deontological theories, are far simpler than the common moral system and sometimes yield totally unacceptable answers to moral problems. Since these philosophers who put forward these theories have usually dismissed common morality as confused, they are c- pletely unaware of the complexity involved in making moral decisions and judgments. It is not surprising that many who take morality seriously and try to apply it to real problems faced by actual people are so critical of moral theory. (Bernard Gert 1998, p. 6) As both Stevenson and Gert note, ethics requires social and other sciences for by its very nature, ethics is a practical enterprise.

Ethical debate often lags far behind the development of new technology. As a result, confusion abounds over what is permissible, what is not, and what we should do about any of it. This uncertainty results in bad policy decisions and unnecessary strife in some communities, as has happened in the case of transgenic or genetically modified organisms.

In this book, D.R. Cooley, associate professor of philosophy and ethics at North Dakota State University, shows that a pragmatic solution to this problem is to develop a practical moral code that can be used to evaluate any technological development before it happens. In ensuring this code’s wide-ranging applicability, Cooley has designed it to include moral principles and a hierarchical value theory created from a combination of the best elements of Kant’s and Mill’s ethical theories, applied ethics, including environmental, bioethics, and business ethics, and how people actually think about morality in their everyday lives. In addition, the author examines and offers solutions to a number of problematic views in current technology debates after examining each in much greater detail than is currently available. By taking seriously C.L. Stevenson’s claim that philosophy should be informed by all the sciences, this work’s pragmatic code is designed to solve problems, rather than create or foster them.