Animals in education and the structure of science

Abstract

The author puts forward the idea that one reason why ethical aspects of scientific experimentation received so little attention until recently, may be related to the methodological structure of natural science. It is the objectivation of nature and the belief in the value-freedom of science which have led to the separation between applying science and ethical reflection. In cases of conscientious objection one can regularly hear scientists say that students who don't want to do animal experiments should not study biology. This view overlooks the fact that besides the reductionistic approach there is also the holistic-naturalistic approach in biology. In the latter approach animals are studied for their own sake, rather than as measuring instruments or ‘models’. Ethicists would say that the animal studied in this approach has a value-of-its-own (intrinsic value), rather than the instrumental value of the animal in the laboratory. The choice for a reductionistic or holistic approach has different consequences with respect to our educational goals. The reductionistic view fosters the attitude that animals only exist for our own benefit, as objects to be mastered by the scientific method, to be instrumentalized in various practices inside or outside the laboratory. Emphasis on the holistic-naturalistic approach on the other hand leads to quite a different attitude, in which animals may be seen as our ‘partners’, either in the larger ecosystemic community of life, with a clearly recognizable value-of-their-own, or inside the human community (for instance as pets).

Key words:

• Animal experiment
• conscientious objection
• objectivation
• intrinsic value
• reductionism