So far we have analyzed multiple opinions on science and ethics expressed by operators of scientific research and culture. The great variety of positions seems to be due, in general, to two great visions. The first, currently in decline, still sees in the science an ethics of knowledge or of the neutral and impartial truth. The other, on the rise, interprets it as a human activity subject to the rules that govern all activities. These views are expressed with language and motivations inspired by sensitivity of different areas: science, epistemology, history, philosophy and ethics.
In summary, the analysis conducted so far allows two findings. The first is that, in the vast magma of the pluralistic debate on science and ethics, it is significant to find important elements. The second is that, in the distance, the positions open indefinitely become indeterminate, while those peremptory or apodictic become incommunicable and sterile. Therefore, out of their extreme, dialogic and interactive openings seem possible. However, we should have a patient and rigorous critical discernment to connect the good reasons for each position and reprocess them into new syntheses.
Then, there is to say that there is a special way in which the research system operates. It can learn to anticipate spontaneously foreseeable events. This phenomenon we can bring within the term "habituation".
The ‘habituation’ is considered by scholars a basic form of learning which allows to ignore those stimuli that experience has shown to be irrelevant, to focus attention on relevant or new inducements. According to some assumptions we can talk about the involvement of the mechanisms of habituation to explain certain behaviors of man, for example. when you learn not to experience unpleasant stimuli. A typical feature of habituation is that, if for a certain period the stimulus is not presented, it regains its effectiveness.
In the field of scientific research we can find one of its characteristics, that according to which it attaches to science itself the ‘de facto’ possibility to give a full explanation of the reality, without the need of other cognitive instances. However, remember that the greatest lesson of the twentieth century - writes Colin Tudge, biologist of Oxford - is that science can not deal with certainties: that all its results are only partial and provisional truths, waiting to be overtaken from their pedestal.
Picking up the thread of the argument made recently on ResearchGate, I feel I must point out that if we become aware of how many and humanly important are the problems that remain inaccessible to the logic of science. It is to say that we are still in the dark 'This finding may seem disappointing but it is objective, necessary and can be healthy. In fact, it's just disappointing for the ideologues and scientistic diehards, not for researchers aware, guided by logic.
There is to be emphasized that this, as a concept and as a term covers a broad range of meanings and covers all knowledge. It brings together in philosophy, sciences of language and signs, mathematics. It deals with the structure of the argument, reasoning and demonstration of their elements: forms, criteria of validity, fairness and expressive possibilities (Agazzi, 1990). The logic is closely connected to the language and the values that it brings. Together with the sincerity of the statements and the truth of statements common and scientific, we must also consider the clarity of speech, its effectiveness. The thought of professor Gismondi in the ‘Dictionary of ethics of scientific’ is persuasive, as well as the correctness of reasoning. Philosophical inquiry has perceived from the beginning the normative importance of these values.
A synthetic formulation of what we have exposed here so far is perhaps this: "Maybe, it is an illusion to claim the moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications. On the other hand, guiding principles can not be inferred from simple technical efficiency, or from the usefulness accruing to some at the expense of others or, even worse, from prevailing ideologies. Science and technology by their very nature require unconditional respect for fundamental moral criteria; must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and integral good.
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