Blog 4


I had never thought to compare internal and external goods to each other. Internal goods are more important yet in life it appears that people often prioritize external goods. A lot of students that I’ve meet during my time as an undergrad in Lyman Brings have expressed that they are in this science program because many science related career fields have high salaries. These people are motivated by externals goods. People like them would take more pride in getting a Nobel Prize rather than the scientific discovery they made to get them that prize. It’s not wrong to appreciate the external goods but the internal goods should matter more to you if you want to be a good scientist. Curiosity and truth should be enough reason to be a scientist, if it’s not you shouldn’t be one. This leads into a question asked in Chapter two asking if seeking honors is dishonorable. There is no black and white answer, but if your pure reason is to get honors then yes. Everyone need something to motivate them and sometimes truth and curiosity isn’t’ enough. I believe it would still be honorable to be seeking out the truth to just find the truth with the possibility of getting honors to fueling your fire. However, if you change things to make it more likely you’d get honors like the example form the reading then no, you are not a honorable scientist anymore. To not be an honorable scientist does not make you a dishonest one. Being a dishonest scientist is a whole new level of awfulness. It goes completely against what we defined a scientist. It honestly disgusts me that people would lie about research to get some sort of honor. If you are making up data and lying then you are not a scientist.

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