ABSTRACT
What, normatively, is the relationship between my, or indeed anyone’s, ethical fi ndings in the ethics of inquiry, and a reasonable political approach to the permitting, regulating, forbidding, and funding and of research, investigation, and inquiry? Such questions are particularly salient where scientifi c research, including biomedical research, is concerned. But related questions exist about non-scientifi c forms of inquiry, such as the inquiries of journalists. Even inquiry in the humanities can be considered from a political standpoint; is such inquiry of any worth to the state, and should the state support, or ignore, such inquiry? In this chapter and the next, I ask what forms of scientifi c research governments may, may not, and perhaps must support and fund. In Chapter 10, I consider fi rst what relationship the state should have to inquiry in the humanities. Is the research of philosophers, literary theorists, and classicists reasonably supported by the state, or is this an insuffi ciently practical-minded waste of public monies? I then consider what relationship the state should have to journalistic inquiry.
