Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

IV. Ethics
that “I hav nvr don anything
assrting
No disovry of min has mad, or is
‘usful’.
to mak, dirtly or indirtly, for good
likly
ill, th last diffrn to th amnity of th
or
(1940). Though Hardy was ultimatly
world”
aout th lak of utility of purly
wrong
rsarh, as w saw in stion I,
mathmatial
ould not hav known that at th tim. Evn
h
som mathmatiians ontinu to argu
today,
pur mathmatial rsarh is rmovd
that
qustions of this aus it is nutral
from
andharmlss.
the extent that an applied mathematician gets
To
with a real-world activity, like geology or
involved
he has to deal with the ethical issues
engineering,
that eld, not because he’s a mathematician, but
of
[W]hat about pure mathematics? Mathematicians
…
merely prove theorems. Is there any ethical
who
comparable to what you nd in other
component
of science…?
elds
pure mathematics, when restricted just to research
In
not considering the rest of our professional life,
and
ethical component is very small … . I can’t think
the
any other eld of which you could say that. That’s
of
people say pure mathematicians live in an ivory
why
One answer to this could be, “…There’s no
tower.
whatever we like”. … But when I think about this
do
l nd it rather scary. Because it means that
attitude,
we become totally immersed in research on pure
if
we can enter a mental state which is
mathematics,
asid th prolms of dmarating
Laving
and pur mathmatis, Run Hrsh’s
applid
sntns rval a mathmatial onrn
losing
aout mathmatial knowldg itslf, ut
not
th rursiv impat on mathmatis, that
aout
prhaps uniqu to th disiplin: its potntial
is
to, and dtahmnt from humanity. A
irrlvan
argumnt along th sam lins was mad
rnt
Paul Ernst. “Thr is signifiant ollatral
y
ausd y larning mathmatis … th
damag
of pur mathmatis itslf lads to styls
natur
thinking that an damaging whn applid
of
mathmatis to soial and human issus”
yond
2018).
(Ernst
Rohll Gutiérrz’s argumnt, from II.4,
Rall
w nd to “rhumaniz” mathmatis
that
divrsity and inlusion. It is not
towards
to Ernst’s fars that “thial
dissimilar
in th tahing of mathmatis
nutrality”
support a “dhumanizing outlook” that
may
studnts to sparat thir intlltual
trains
motional livs. This onrn is shard
and
mathmatis duators who work towards
y
quity, as w disussd in stion II.
duational
spifi rommndation is that
Ernst’s
and this ar inludd in th
philosophy
3 explores the sources of bias in machine
Chapter
and articial intelligence, and the implications
learning
this for the predictive power and application of that
of
A recurring tension is whether we can
knowledge.
biases inherent to the algorithim versus
separate
in the data sets used to train the articial
biases
hav sn that th prolm with th
W
nutrality of pur mathmatis is that
supposd
lin twn pur and applid mathmatis is
th
and ontinuously shifting. This haptr
impris
11
IV.1 Is pure mathematics ethically
neutral?
tahing of mathmatis at all lvls.
Making connections
because he’s involved in that application.
The myth of impartiality
intelligence.
for mathematicians to have a code of ethics,
need
what we do matters so little that we can
because
rather inhuman, rather totally cut o from humanity.
(Hersh 1990)
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