Читать книгу A Guide to the Scientific Career - Группа авторов - Страница 80

We assume that a student who embraces a research career will seek a practical pathway by which the student can develop virtuous habits of character. Lessons from literature that reflect on virtues would further allow researchers to learn from the long history of ethics (e.g. authors such as Homer, Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin, and Jane Austen). Several religions consider the virtues necessary for a good and moral life; thus, researchers can enrich their understanding of the virtues by engaging with these traditions and welcoming religious perspectives in discussions about research ethics. This so‐called open pluralism can contribute to the professional development of novice researchers, particularly if they belong to one of these religious traditions (Kinghorn et al. 2007).

To illustrate, we will offer a few considerations from the ascetic tradition of the Near East. In the Platonic model of psychology, the human psyche consists of three key elements: the noetic, or intellect; the incensive, describing desires and animations; and the appetitive, the ability to satisfy bodily needs. These elements are further reiterated in the Patristic writings of the Fathers of the Christian Church as the powers of the human soul and can be characterized by the virtues of justice in the search for truth, courage, and temperance, respectively – with wisdom as the overruling principle of the human soul.

A contemporary French philosopher of Christian‐Platonic understanding, John Claude Larchet, builds on the philosophies of early Christian Patristic Fathers of the Church such as Saint John of Damascus and Saint Maximus the Confessor. Larchet describes three essential powers of the human soul as vegetative (nutrition and growth), animal (aggressiveness, desire, and affectivity), and reasoning (reason being the principal characteristic that distinguishes humans from all other creatures). The power of reasoning has two important faculties: the spiritual faculty (intellect, or nous, linked to a human's noetic ability and responsible for the moral and psychological senses of consciousness) and the faculty of self‐determination (Larchet 2011).

Although it adopts the Platonic virtues, the Christian ascetic tradition, with respect to the incensive element of the soul, focuses on the virtue of love – cultivating practices that exhibit brotherly love and compassion (Vitz 2014). Early Christian‐Platonist thinker, Saint John Damascus, described the contrasting “sins” to the incensive powers as including “heartlessness, hatred and lack of compassion” (Palmer et al. 1981). Peter of Damaskos stated that love of neighbor is highest among all virtues (Palmer et al. 1983). And Saint Isaac of Nineveh stated that a person whose incensive powers are in the right order has a heart “burning with love towards the whole creation: towards men, birds, animals, demons and every creature…cannot bear to hear or see the least harm done to or misfortune suffered by creation” (Popovich 1994; Alfeyev 2000).

To summarize, the pursuit of virtue in the Christian ascetic tradition is ultimately the struggle to acquire a compassionate heart and demonstrate mercy toward every human being and creation. Clement of Alexandria (150–215 AD) and John of Damascus (676–749 AD) have described the “passions” as barriers to manifesting love. The passions should not be understood as human emotions but, rather, as vices precluding obedience to the Word of God (see ‘The Stromata’ in Roberts and Donaldson 1885 and ‘An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith’ in Schaff and Wace 1899). Examples of these passions are avarice, bitterness, resentfulness, anger, pride, jealousy, lustfulness, or what the ascetic fathers called “self‐love.” The Church teaches that such “passionate” persons will be preoccupied with satisfying their own desires for pleasure, wealth, and praise – and as such will fail to attend to or cultivate the true virtues of compassion and mercy. Particularly relevant to the practice of research, those who give in to their passions will regard others as rivals or as impediments toward satisfying their self‐love (Vitz 2014): a pattern that is likely to erode the spirit of teamwork and undermine a research team's effectiveness and success.

An important reason for bringing to light these traditional thinkers in contemporary practice, and in regard to the ethical growth of researchers and scientists, is that we believe a similar model can be used as an impetus toward understanding the purpose and virtuosity of performing scientific research.