论E.L.多克托罗《自来水厂》和《大进军》中的美国科学伦理危机

A Study of the Crisis of Science Ethics in America in E. L.Doctorow's The Waterworks and The March

E.L.多克托罗是当代美国著名的历史小说作家,其作品经常以对美国历史进行艺术化加工的方式来批判美国的社会现实,这在《自来水厂》和《大进军》中得到了很好的体现。在这两部作品里,作者分别借助"镀金年代"和美国内战的历史以及丰富的想象,揭示了当代美国科学主义影响下的科学伦理危机:科学家在实验中对弱势群体的无情利用,科学与财富和权力的勾结以及科学家在对理性知识的过度追求中所出现的伦理情感异化,从而变成了科学主义"怪人"。从以上三个方面来探讨当代美国科学研究中的伦理危机及其社会危害不仅可以增进读者对多克托罗本人及其作品的认识,也更能让他们反思科学发展中出现的伦理问题。

E. L. Doctorow is a famous contemporary American historical novelist. His novels often feature a criticism of the American social reality by poeticizing American history. In The Waterworks and The March,the author makes use of historical events of the Gilded Age and the Civil War and his rich imagination to criticize the crisis of science ethics in America under the impact of scientism: scientists' taking advantage of the vulnerable mercilessly in scientific experiments,the complicity of science with wealth and power,and scientists' alienation in ethical emotion while they are in excessive pursuit of rational knowledge,hence turning themselves into scientistic grotesques. To investigate the ethical problem in scientific researches in America and its ill social consequences from the above three aspects will not only enhance readers' understanding of Doctorow and his novels,but also inspire them to reflect upon the ethical problems occasioned by the development of science.