Ethics and science: a time for precaution

International audienceThe situation of science and scientists today is neither clear nor simple. On some very important issues, such as GMOs, climate change and nanotechnology, there are some intense controversies brewing; even power struggles that border on violence. In short, science and scientists now find themselves in the eye of the storm. The question of ethics has become more important than ever. What is the place of ethics in today's scientific world? I would like to present the focus of my work and a hypothesis. My thoughts belong to a genre that can be defined as 'applied ethics'. This is a theoretical reflection with a clear aim to provide a solution to a problem facing society today. I also state a hypothesis that scientific ethics are built around cardinal values, with the central ideas having been, throughout history, truth, utility and progress. The central theme of my argument is to show that with advances in technosciences and the ever increasing power of the market, we have 'changed worlds' and that we are now living in a world that I would label as 'a fragile, complex and uncertain world'. Therefore a new cardinal value is required; one that I call precaution. It is my view that it should replace the ideology of progress, and lay out a new method of growth, in particular a new relationship with nature, a new rationality, a new understanding of action. It is in this context alone that the principle of precaution may be understood for what it is: a profoundly innovative principle, for which I will illustrate the ethical dimensions. I will develop my work in three parts. First Science and Ethics - Past and Present, then Entering the World of Precaution and finally the Precautionary Principle - an Ethical Principle