I would like to kick off the response to this essay question using a quote from a famous philosopher known as Albert Camus. “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world”. Camus promotes the use of at least some mankind morality in order to act and behave ‘ethically’ right on our planet earth. But what are the ethics? How do they hinder or help humanity within the arts and the natural science? Ethical judgments can limit modern society thinking in many ways. Yet how many people are aware of these limitations and its affect on our spectrum of knowledge? ‘Limitations’ are defined by a dictionary as “the act of controlling the size or extent of something” (Merriam-Webster). The limitations that are controlled by ethical judgments can hinder not only artists and natural scientists as producers of true knowledge, but also society in itself and its extent in the acquisition of individual, of what should be ‘true’, knowledge. Methods in the production of art and natural sciences differ, as they are two very diverse disciplines. The arts being stereotypically considered as ‘creative’, ‘free’ and ‘imaginative’ whereas the natural sciences are contemplated as ‘serious’, ‘factual’, ‘systematic’ and ‘intellectual’.
The arts are currently being hindered, often decided by culture and belief. These limitations are sometimes ethically accurate but can also be scientifically incorrect. To what extent should ethical rules hinder an artist or scientist in producing true knowledge? Art is a wide umbrella name for lots of creative work. This spans out from paintings to poems, from media to music and from film to dance. Yet the question is, where do the boundaries of art go and where do they stop? Art does not have any universal standards and its definition can be different per country or per person. Is a designer toilet art? Is graffiti art? In art, the main way of knowing is emotion. Of all the ways of knowing, emotion is quite hard to assess and measure, because everyone is affected quite differently by emotion. In arts, emotion helps an individual helps an individual to craft an objective picture of the universe. In many instances, an artist is evoked by construct brilliant pieces of art because of the knowledge that emanates from this emotion. A very provocative art exhibition that has gotten criticized is the display called Bodies, which opened in Florida and has appeared in cities like Amsterdam, Honolulu, Puerto Rico, Vienna, Madrid and many more. It shows over 250 human figures, of which the artists have used real bones, skeletons and muscle tissue from dissected individuals. Questions that arise from this exhibition is whether it is an educational form of art or an unnecessary obnoxious and money costing display that is morally wrong. Ethical concerns have also been raised on this issue with the main issue being the exhibit’s provenance. Critics have questioned if it is indeed ethical to view human remains as art exhibits. The question of morality has also been forwarded with some asking whether it is morally right to exhibit the bodies in such a manner. Many claim that the exhibits are too graphic and transcend human morality. One particular aspect of the bodies exhibit that has got some morality crusaders going nuts is the presence of aborted or premature fetuses among the exhibits. The innocent babies who actually had no choice in the decision of whether to live or die are being exhibited as if nothing is wrong. The bodies’ exhibit has been constructed using corpses from China and one the arguments of those opposed to its public display claim the bodies should be displayed because China traditionally has been human rights violating nations. In addition, the individuals whose bodies are on display did give permission for their bodies to be exhibited. Another controversial issue in the arts where ethical judgments have been observed to bring a limitation regards to the Chapman brothers “shock art pornography”. Their art pieces have been criticized in the art circles by being described as “unethical”. For instance, their 1997 piece “The Token Pole” has elicited massive controversy due to its obscene nature. In addition, the objective sculptures of children who are openly sprouting their genital have undergone massive ethical judgments with main concern once again being that in relation to morality. As mentioned earlier, the main hindrance to art has been culture and belief. The ethical concerns raised above are most definitely justified but in the modern contemporary world, they are almost mediocre. Bodies are an exemplary depiction of an artists’ exploratory mind and it is quite unfortunate that cultural issues and values are being used to hinder him or her from fully expressing himself. The Bodies scenario is a clear-cut example of ethical judgment hindering the arts and indeed human thinking. Unlike science, which deals with factual content, art is defined as “imaginative” or “free”. As a result, it should be taken that seriously. The role of art is to allow for imagination and innovation. If ethical limitations such as the one plaguing the Bodies exhibit continue to derail the imagination and creativity of artists, then it will become almost impossible for art to develop as a general discipline.
Natural science is another field where ethical concerns and limitations threaten its basic existence. The major ways of knowing in the natural sciences is emotion and reason. The latter’s contribution to the development of knowledge is however more. Science is based on factual content and reason in the natural sciences helps us to believe what we see. Reason drives stakeholders of the natural sciences fraternity forward in the search for new knowledge. Emotion only comes into the equation when controversial subjects are considered. However, every day, the methods of producing knowledge in the natural sciences discipline are being limited by ethical judgments, particularly in regards to beliefs. As seen earlier, ethics are an exemplary social guard form many things. However, when the form of control acts as derailment to the development of knowledge in a particular discipline, then it ceases to be a guard and becomes an impediment. Natural sciences deal with factual, systematic and intellectual content. As result, no stone should be left unturned in the exploratory mission of facts. However, just like in the arts, there exist some ethical judgments that try to dictate the extent to which science should go in its mission to find facts. One particular area of controversy and contention has been the dissection of live animals in schools. In many schools across the world, animal dissection has been used as tool of learning particularly in biology. Biologists claim that the best way of learning is by experiencing things first hand and what better way for students to learn about the internal body parts of animals than by dissecting the animals themselves. In this sense, dissecting acts as a method of producing knowledge in the natural sciences field. However, this aspect is not devoid of ethical concerns and judgment. Many argue that dissecting live animals is a complete disregard of both moral and legal ethics. Once again, this argument is definitely justified because in real sense, it is quite cruel to terminate the life of an animal just like that. Then again, the development of knowledge in any particular subject comes with collateral damage. What would be unethical would be the uncontrolled killing of animals in haphazard manner. However, when, a few animals are sacrificed in the quest for knowledge, which will most likely be beneficial to the human race, and then it becomes a small price to pay. Another controversial issue in the natural sciences has been stem cell research. The “farming” or “culturing” of organs has been wildly questions. Critics of this research is ungodly and its is far overboard. It is an example of a situation where natural sciences have gone beyond all the possible limits of ethics. A scientist is always obliged to tell the truth and in the expression of this truth, some seemingly human ethical boundaries might be transcended. It is however irresponsible to blame the scientists for being unethical. The scientists are simply to abide by the integrity of the discipline and the discipline should be the one that should be blamed instead.
In conclusion, in the absence of ethical judgment, it would be every easy for humans to go overboard in some disciplines and the human race might end up being monsters. This does mean that the development of knowledge in the sciences and the arts should be derailed. The applicable ways of knowing in the two fields should be allowed to run free to allow for the creation and development of knowledge in the two fields. This ethical judgment should acts as limiters to the extent that any discipline before it becomes too overwhelming and inconsiderate. However, as much as there is a need for a limitation to be present for everything, we must not allow some unwarranted limitations to derail the development of knowledge, particularly in the arts and the natural sciences. These are two disciplines that have grown tremendously over the last few decades and a lot of knowledge on the two has been developed. If this trend is to continue, the stakeholders of the discipline should be allowed to conduct their work with some level of freedom. The two must however be governed by ethics to some extent. It is difficult to imagine what the world would be without ethics. There would utter chaos and aspects such as morality, law and order would have no place. Such a world would only end up in total destruction.
Works Cited
"Education or freak show? 'Bodies The Exhibition' cashes in on our own curiosity."seattlepi.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
Madrazo, G. The debate over dissection: Dissecting a classroom dilemma. The Science Educator(NSELA). EJ64162. 2002.
Mieth, Dietmar, Jacques M. Pohier, and Philip Hillyer. Ethics in the Natural Sciences. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1989. Print.
"NSTA Position Statement: Responsible Use of Live Animals and Dissection in the Science Classroom." National Science Teachers Association. N.p., 2014. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
Preziosi, Donald, and Johanne Lamoureux. In the Aftermath of Art: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.
