Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Neutrality is a concept deployed for safeguarding one's position in the complex and sometimes hazardous world. Since the fourteenth century, the word neutrality has predominantly denoted nonalignment in the realms of politics, diplomacy, and war, in which no firm ground for neutrality can be assured. Thus, neutrality as nonalignment is dependent on the political judgment of others: whether they acknowledge one's neutrality to be sincere or expedient to their interests. The history of politics shows that in some cases the neutral political status was accepted (for instance, Switzerland since the Congress of Vienna in 1815) and in others it was not (Laos during the Vietnam war). Another understanding of neutrality is derived from natural sciences. Here, neutrality is anchored in the facts of nature, which are independent of the individual investigating them. Thus, in natural sciences neutrality can be warranted, insofar as one sticks to the methodological rules set by science and does not allow any value-laden interests to interfere with one's relationship with the object. Neutrality as allegiance to the set of rules, too, can be charged methodologically and/or politically. It is particularly vulnerable to questions about the ethics of supposedly neutral actions. Currently, the neutrality of natural sciences is a hotly debated issue in connection with biotechnology. In communications, ... log in or subscribe to read full text