Science-based versus traditional ethics

Abstract

Do science-based values occupy a privileged position as criteria against which traditional cultural values are to be tested? Science-based values are plural and traditional values even more pluralist. Cases examined here cross a spectrum from conflict to complementarity and criticism. Authentic human life ought to go beyond both traditional cultures and science as we know it, reaching a global ethics. Respect for the community of life on Earth--ecologically and culturally--is the test of an ethic for the world.