Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 Points) - The Medawar Lecture Is Science Dangerous?'

Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 points). The Medawar Lecture ‘Is Science Dangerous?
Module 1 Section 1. Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society
Name: Germane P. Verutiao

Course/Section: BSAR / A59 Date Submitted: ______________________
Instructions: After reading Lewis Wolpert’s The Medawar Lecture 1998 ‘Is Science Dangerous?’, reflect and
answer the following questions.
1. What did Lewis Wolpert mean when he stated that ‘reliable scientific knowledge is value-free and has
no moral or ethical value’ (p. 1254)? Following this premise, when does science become subjected to
questions of ethics and morality?
Answer:
For me, Lewis Wolpert meant that reliable scientific knowledge is unbiased and has no ethical values
nor moral values since Science’s nature are that to make any social implications of any of their works and
technological applications to be public and not to predict any future discoveries or how will they apply. As for
the time when Science becomes a subject of ethics and morality, it will become a subject when a person
finishes a certain experiment and thinks of another step to add to the experiment. For example which is stated
in the article is Cloning, since we discovered cloning will we start cloning people?
2. In urging scientists to understand public concerns, Wolpert maintains, “It is most important that they
[scientists] do not allow themselves to become the unquestioning tools of either government or industry”
(p. 1258). What did he mean by this? Cite a local example related to the country’s COVID-19-response.
Answer:
Since scientist often has used numerous scientific methods in their research to formulate conclusions,
people especially from the government or the industry workers always either pay them or threaten them to say
something that is different from their original research. Wolpert wants every scientist to stick with their
research and the conclusions they formulate regardless of what other people make them say or do. A brief
example of this on our country’s response to COVID-19 is when WHO already declared that spread of
COVID-19 and a lot of experts and scientist said that it is best to close the borders of every country to stop the
spread, but our government didn’t and chose to still open it until the month of February 2020 and our cases
increased drastically.
3. Lewis Wolpert called eugenics a ‘rare case of immoral science’. Why did he say so? Could the
eugenics movement have been otherwise (moral)? Or was it ‘immoral’ right at the start? Defend your
answer.
Answer:
As I read through what Eugenics really is, I would agree with what Lewis Wolpert said that the
eugenic is a rare case of immoral science. According to him Eugenics wasn’t even science, the only science
part of it is were they observe about species changing and from what I understand, I would call this immoral
because not only are you trying to get rid of all “bad” traits which is not easily unidentifiable, you are also
making children as your test subject. This is why I agree that Eugenics is immoral because not only are you
trying to make people to be perfect, which is impossible, you are also going against ethics which plays a huge
role in genetics.
4. Towards the end of his article, Wolpert raised questions regarding the intersections of science and
technology with politics. Choose one of the questions Wolpert raised and provide a practical
answer/solution to it.
a. How do we ensure that the public are involved in decision making [on science and politics]?
Answer:
Since making a decision is important since everyone including the public will benefit from this, I think
that both politicians and scientist will be as transparent as they can about their researches, different
conclusions, opinions and solutions that they find feasible to the problem and will not burden the public. For
example is the COVID-19 Response, the country’s government and scientists or any other professionals in the
medicine industry must provide the public with correct information, the do’s and don’ts or important
reminders and solutions to be able to battle the COVID-19 which is initiating lockdowns and country wide
vaccination.
References:
Goering, S. (2014, July 2). Eugenics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved November 12,
2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/eugenics/.
Tomacruz, S. (2020, February 3). As coronavirus spreads, Duterte hits 'xenophobia' vs Chinese.
Rappler. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.rappler.com/nation/novel-coronavirus-
spreads-duterte-hits-xenophobia-vs-chinese.
Wolpert, L. (2005). The Medawar Lecture 1998 is science dangerous? Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 360(1458), 1253–1258.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1659

Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 Points) - The Medawar Lecture Is Science Dangerous?'

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 Points) - The Medawar Lecture Is Science Dangerous?'

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 Points) - The Medawar Lecture Is Science Dangerous?'

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Metacognitive Reading Report 1 (40 points). The Medawar Lecture ‘Is Science Dangerous?

Module 1 Section 1. Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society

Name: Germane P. Verutiao

You might also like