[Sigia-l] morality in IA

[Laura Scheirer Quinn]

>Does anyone else feel like what we do isn't just mucking around in the dotpop
>land anymore? that we have obligations?

This has begun to bother me too recently.  In particular, I've been reading a lot (too much apparently) about the meaning of truth, and the ethical mandate people have to search for the truth rather than just assume or make decisions based on a gut feel... a lot of philosophy gets rather harsh on this point-- that just going with your gut is akin to perpetuating an environment of stupidity.

And so much of what we do is based on on gut, assumptions, feeling.  While I nearly always propose research, I rarely get to do it.  American society as a whole downplays any value of research.  All the time you see stuff in the media that proclaims the benefit of gut feel and downplays data as stogy and tiresome, and all the time people refute the research I have done telling me I must have misheard or misinterpreted, because it conflicts with their gut.  

I suppose my ethical mandate probably can't extend to telling my clients they're perpetuating an environment of stupidity, or refusing to make decisions based on assuptions, at least if I want to keep my job, but I wish I could come up with something practical to do.  It's really begin to bother me.

laura s. quinn