The Responsible Scholar: Ethical Considerations in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Berthoud, Gerald, and Beat Sitter-Litter, eds., ix + 303pp.   Today it is routine to ask scientists, engineers, and medical researchers to face up to their ethical and social responsibilities. Surely social scientists, too have seen themselves challenged by an analogous demand, yet it seems that they have experienced less social pressure than their colleagues from the aforementioned disciplines. Who has ever asked scholars engaged in the humanities to reflect on and account for their academic endeavors? It is as if their activities are of no social or ethical relevance. To show that humanities and social sciences are more and more deeply concerned with the moral dimension of their activities is the primary objective of this collection of papers, which were presented at an international, interdisciplinary symposium. In a stimulating and sometimes provocative way, they put forward ideas and proposals for guiding both empirical research and teaching by a number of foundational moral rul