Mathematics and Ethics
Davis, C.• ~Frorn an Exile: in The New
professors. RD. Bowen, ed . New York: Hott,
Rinehart. Winston
Mathematics and Ethics
Reuben Hersh 0 1 2 3 4
0 University of New Mexico , USA
1 (7] Heims , S.J., John yon Neumann ancl Norbert Wiener, Cambridge, M.I.T. Press, 1980
2 [6) Graham , Loren R., Belween Science
3 [5] Freiman , G.A.
4 (8) Koblitz, N, "Matternatcs as Propaqanda," in MathematiCs Tomorrow , 111-120, Lynn Arthur
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/hmnj Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Logic and Foundations of Mathematics Commons, and the Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation
-
Article 9
I want to start off by correcting any possible
false impression that I'm going totell you what is ethi
cal. or that I've solved any big problem regarding
mathematics andethics,becauseIcertainlyhaven't,
and make no such claim. Of course, the next ques
tion you ask is, why am I standing up here anyhow?
II's only because I have thought about the question,
andin the process oflhinking about ithave had some
ideas which I'd liketo offeryou.
The observation that got me started on this
was that In many professional fields, there hasbeen
lor a while a well established concern with ethics .
What that means varies from field to field. But the
idea that a professional association of engineers or
statisticians might concern itself with ethical behav
ior in thatfield is notradicalat all. It's a verystandard
thing. Often it's done officially by the establishment.
Oftenthere are active concerns on the partof special
organizations, editorials in journals, and so on.
Oneof the firstorganizations01 this type that
I had contact with, long before I was a mathemati
cian, was the Society for Social Responsibility in
Science. I'm not sure it still exists. In itsday, the 50's
and the 60'S, it was primarily concerned with nuclear
arms, nuclear warfare. nuclear destruction of the
human race. It consisted largely at physicists, many
01 them Quakers or Quaker sympathizers. They took
the position that there was a question of social re
sponsibility,lor the physicist particularly, whether he
shouldbeworking on nuclearweapons.Somepeople
refused to work on nuclear weapons, or quit military
jobs. Whether you agree with that or not, this was a
legitimate issue in the physics community.
Another example arose with the environ
mentalist movement. Barry Commoner, of St. louis,
was an outstanding spokesman. This movement in
volved biologists and also chemists,because chem
ists do a lot 01 polluting. Not chemists themselves,
the things that chemists create. There again, was a
question of social responsibility,which is one aspect
01 ethics.
I have in my band two actualcodes 01 ethics.
One was adopted by the statisticians' society, and
the other by the professional engineers' society.
These are not so political. They have more to do with
proper behaviortoward one's client, ethical issuesof
that sort. No doubt you could find other examples.
HMN News/eNer #5
For a mathematician, it's natural to ask, how
come we don't seem to be concerned about ethical
issues or discuss them? It is true, as many of you
know, that recently there was a relerendum in the
American Mathematics Society. There was a long
drawn-out political hassle, and in the end seven
motions were passed by the membership. The one
that is probably most controversial says that the So
ciety shouldnot involve itse" in helpingthe Star Wars
501 activity to recruitamong A. M. S. members. That
issue certainly has ethical implications. But it was a
one-time, ad hoc thing, not an indication 01 continu
ing concern or involvement with ethical issues by
mathematicians. In myopinion,the reasonit became
a big issue inthe AMSwas that there had alreadyde
veloped strong opposition to the SOl among physi
cists and oomputer scientists, both in individual
departments and in national organizations. I think
that was why some mathematicians felt that we
should alsoget involved.Inthe end, after alot of back
and forth haggling, the membership approved the
anti-SOl motion. So there is an example of an ethical
issue that did come before and actually passed the
American Math Society. That's not the main thing I
want to talk about. I just mention it because some of
you might have it on your mind and might remember
h.
Thething that is striking, yousee, isthat in all
the other examples I've given-the biologists' involve
ment in environmental issues, and the chemists as
well, and the physicists in nuclear war, and the stat
isticians requiring that it you are a good statistician
you won't give away your client's data-these are all
different, but they have one thing in common. They
are all in some way intrinsic to the actual practice of
the particularprofession. The physicists aretheones
who makethe bombs,the chemists are the oneswho
pollute,and soon. WhenI thoughtabout the situation
of mathematicians, I found I was oscillating between
two different v (...truncated)