Some thoughts on current knowledge paradigms and their implications for research ethics

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.