Abstract:
This is the first of two papers in which the authors seek to
explain and problematise the current moral and ethical deviations from
ideal research ethics by examining the predominant humanist philosophical
knowledge system that underpins the postmodern era and
modern scientific research practices. Additionally, a causal relationship
between knowledge paradigms, culture and societal behaviour along with
societal products and societal instruments is proposed. The notion is that
knowledge paradigms have the potential to influence the cultures of the
people who adopt them. The culture which knowledge paradigms produce
within a society in turn influences the instruments that said society generates,
such as economic systems, power structures and policies pertaining
to human co-existence/behaviour. This paper in two parts examines and
compares the formulae for (ethical) knowledge generation that were used
during the medieval, modern and current postmodern eras and the performative
effects of the respective knowledge paradigms within those
societies in terms of morality, ethics, geopolitics, scientific and existential
inquiry.
