La Commedia Scientifica: Dante and the Scientific Virtues

The ethical challenges facing contemporary science range from scientific misconduct, to the rightful treatment of people, animals and the environment. In this work, we explore the role of virtue ethics, which concern the character of a person, in contemporary science. Through interviews with thirteen scientists, eight of whom are geoscientists, we identify six virtues in science (honesty, humility, philia, innocence, generosity and reticence), paired with vices, and construct a narrative 10 argument around them. Specifically, we employ the narrative structure of the late medieval poem Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, and draw on its moral universe to explore the scientific virtues. Using this narrative device, we make the case for virtue ethics being a reliable guide for all matters scientific. As such, this work lays out a modern code of conduct for science.

In Ovid's Heroides, Penelope urges Ulysses to return to Ithaca, reminding him of his duties as a father, son and husband 245 (Boyde, 2000). Her pleas are summarised by Dante's  These wonderful verses describe Ulysses' urgent longing to gain knowledge and satisfy his curiositya force inside him so strong that it leads him to shirk his familial duties. Thus, Dante's Ulysses reminds us of the danger of taking knowledgeand sciencetoo far, as already recognised by Dantean scholars Patrick Boyde (2000), Jean-Louis Poirier (2016) and Prue Shaw (2014, p.130). 265 In Homer, as pointed out by contemporary philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (1984, p.132), Odysseus' cunning is treated as a virtue, 'and it is of course for his exercise of the virtues that a hero receives honour.' We too, without forgetting Ulysses' https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-29 Preprint. Discussion started: 29 June 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. darker side so well epitomised in the verses above (Inf. XXVI, 94-99), will take the kinder view, as we follow Ulysses through the scientific underworld. Just as, in Dante, trusted guide Virgil personifies human reason and knowledge (Shaw,270 2014), so we will take our Scientist's guide, Ulysses, to personify the intellectual curiosity and love of knowledge that scientists recognise in themselves: "It's a bit like being a mountain climber, a polar explorer or a deep-sea diver. You go and explore somewhere, you go somewhere nobody has been before. […] You are exploring uncharted territory. There is that tremendous excitement that 275 you get." -Professor Given the spirit of science which, irrespective of author, Ulysses embodies, it is fitting that we should seek guidance from him on where to place our own Herculean Columns of the life scientific. But let us return to the Scientist and her dream.
Ulysses strokes Argos and whispers that he will be back soon. He starts to walk towards a large wooden door. The Scientist 280 follows, transfixed...

Inferno -the sins of a science that has lost its way
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.
(Inf. III,9) (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.) 285 This inscription is scrawled above the door of our unethical research centre, a fiery pit of misconduct and infinite sadness.
Before proceeding, it is worth noting that the sins we will encounter here and in our scientific Purgatorio will only broadly follow those of Dante's moral universe. In common with the Inferno, we will consider incontinence, violence and fraud (Auerbach, 1961;Di Zenzo, 1965), but certain deviations from the Commedia's nine circles and seven terraces of purgatory 290 must be allowed, if pertinence to contemporary science is to be our guiding principle. https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-29 Preprint. Discussion started: 29 June 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.
The Scientist and Ulysses step inside a vast, open-plan office, complete with rusty scientific instruments and dusty lab benches. In one corner, dozens of scientists are seated at long rows of desks, quietly sobbing. 'These,' says Ulysses, 'are the souls of scientists whose plight I know all too well, for their curiosity went too far.' Heavy chains hold the scientists down, 295 forcing them to stare forever into microscopes with broken lenses, resembling the instruments they held so dear in life. In Dante, punishments must always reflect the nature and gravity of the sina principle he calls contrappasso (Scott, 2004) -becoming 'either an externalisation of the aberrant impulse or a corrective to it' (Shaw, 2014, p.113). The same is true of the unethical research centre we are intent on exploring.

300
As they make their way across the dimly-lit office, Ulysses and the Scientist see another group of souls huddled together. As they approach them, they are met with loud, desolate cries: the scientists are chained to their desks, but are looking up, arms outstretched, towards towering piles of books and documents. 'These souls are separated from their families by walls of textbooks and papers. They can hear their loved ones calling for them from behind these walls, but, alas, they are never to be reunited,' says Ulysses. Turning away from the tormented souls, he wipes away a tear from his cheek and walks on. 305 In the centre of the office, hundreds of souls are crawling on their hands and knees, weighed down by heavy plaques hanging from their necks. Some plaques are decorated with inscriptions such as 'Dr', 'Professor' and 'Emeritus', followed by the names of universities and funding bodies; others simply bear a series of figures on them. 'These,' says Ulysses, 'are the souls of scientists who were greedy for money, power or fame (e.g. Chawla, 2019). The heavy plaques they are dragging in 310 endless circles on the ground bear the insignia of the science they hungered for in life. Some of the plaques show the amount of money they won in grants, or the titles and affiliations they treasured above all else, while others bear the words of modern scientists: At this point, the atmosphere of mistrust and competition becomes so overpowering that the Scientist feels weak and has to hold on to Ulysses. Together, they stumble through a small door and an old laboratory comes into view, illuminated by red, flickering lights. Sounds of growling pierce the thick air. To her horror, the Scientist sees dozens of animals squeezed inside tiny cages. Separate groups of animals are held in pens, while souls of scientists clean their empty cages. 360 'What dreadful place is this?' asks the Scientist. 'Here, you see the souls of those scientists who were violent in life,' says Ulysses. 'Those who are guilty of abusing the power they held over people in their charge are forced to do the menial tasks they avoided in life.' The Scientist turns pale, as she remembers the words of junior colleagues who suffered power abuse at the hands of their supervisors: 365 https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-29 Preprint. Discussion started: 29 June 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. 'In the darkest corner of the room,' whispers Ulysses, 'a special cage is reserved for those scientists who conducted 390 experiments on other humans. They are forever forced to experience the pain of the experiments they themselves devised.' Keen to leave this cruel menagerie of unethical science behind, the Scientist and Ulysses hurry through a dark passage, which opens out into a vast lecture theatre. Endless rows of seats surround a central pit, where a fire is burning. Paintings depicting the tragic story of Daedalus and Icarus decorate the walls. According to the Greek myth, Daedalus was an inventor who built a labyrinth on Crete, only to be held there as a prisoner by Minos, the king of Crete (Palazzi, 1988). In order to 395 escape, Daedalus engineered wings of wax and bird feathers for himself and his son Icarus (Aimonetto, 1957;Palazzi, 1988).
Not heeding his father's warnings not to fly too close to the sun, Icarus soared upwards, melting the wax and falling to his death (Palazzi, 1988). His final moments are described by Dante: ne' quando Icaro misero le reni 400 senti' spennar per la scaldata cera, gridando il padre a lui: 'Mala via tieni!' (Inf. XVII,(109)(110)(111)Singleton) (nor when the wretched Icarus 405 felt his loins unfeathering by the melting wax, and his father cried to him, 'You go an ill way!') 'In this room,' says Ulysses, 'dwell the souls of scientists whose sin was excessive pride.' He points to the fire in the centre of the lecture theatre: 'The scientists tending to those flames are forced to burn the manuscripts, papers and books they wrote 410 in life. Published or unpublished, it is all the same: the fruits of their labour are lost forever in those pyres'.
headlines projected onto giant screens, these fraudulent souls are forever forced to re-live the moment their dishonesty was exposed (see Enserink, 2017), as their colleagues point and stare. 'They hide their faces in shame and mourn their reputation, which is forever lost,' says Ulysses. The purgatory of science ethics is littered with the souls of those who are striving to make science better. The souls who inhabit this realm are present-day scientists, conjured up by the Scientist in her dream. Just as Dante included in Purgatory 455 those souls whose love of God was misdirected (Auerbach, 1961;Dante, 1922;Shaw, 2014), so our Scientist will encounter here those whose love of science is misdirected.  (Bacon, 1973, p.61) Our trusted guide Aristotle glances at the painting and sighs at the sight of the man who wrote about him with such scorn, before pointing to a corner of the office where scientists are holding a meeting. 'These souls,' says Aristotle, 'are searching 545 for ways of maximising happiness in science. Focusing on the consequences of scientists' actions, they believe that utility should be the main criterion for good science,' he says. The Scientist listens in on the souls' conversation and realises she is privy to a meeting of an equality, diversity and inclusion committee (Nature, 2018). Some scientists discuss their terms of reference, while others propose enacting quotas to balance gender disparity in the sciences (Woolston, 2019). Eventually, they decide it is necessary to gather further data, before moving forwards (Tzanakou, 2019). At a nearby table, souls read 550 papers and enter figures into calculators, while others weigh papers on electronic scales, before stacking them in neat piles.
'These souls,' says Aristotle, 'are evaluating funding proposals submitted by other scientists. Using complicated formulae, they try to measure their usefulness to society.' At a table close by, the Scientist and Aristotle see dozens of souls editing documents on large screens. 'Never satisfied, they 555 draft and redraft regulations and codes of conduct for laboratories, offices and conferences. In doing so, they serve at the altar of deontology, believing that rules and regulations will rescue science,' says Aristotle grimly. The Scientist peers at their screens. One of the souls is petitioning her university to sign up for policies that promote free access to research publications (e.g. Else, 2019b), another is reading a list of recommendations around research assessment (e.g. San Francisco https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-29 Preprint. Discussion started: 29 June 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.