Ethics and responsibility · Ethics
Do mathematicians have ethical responsibilities for how their work is used?
Mathematics is often described as neutral: theorems are neither good nor bad. Yet mathematical work has been used in weapons, surveillance, finance and medicine. This question asks whether the people who create mathematical knowledge share responsibility for its uses.
Claims
- A theorem can be used for good or harm, so responsibility lies with those who apply it, not with those who prove it.
- Mathematicians cannot predict the uses of their work; pure results have found applications decades later.
Counterclaims
- Many mathematicians work directly on applications, such as algorithms or models, where uses are foreseeable, so they share responsibility.
- Projects such as the University of Cambridge's Ethics in Mathematics Project argue that mathematicians need ethical training, as doctors and engineers do.
Real-life situations from mathematics
Codebreaking in the Second World War
Mathematicians at Bletchley Park, including Alan Turing, broke German codes. Their work is widely thought to have shortened the war. It also shows mathematics serving national security in secret.
Weapons of Math Destruction
In her 2016 book, the mathematician Cathy O'Neil argued that opaque mathematical models used in hiring, policing and lending can harm people at scale, and called for accountability.
Check dates and figures in a reliable source before you use them, and cite that source.
Use this in your TOK work
Essay. Fits titles about ethics and knowledge, or responsibility of knowers.
Exhibition. A model of an Enigma rotor or a printout of a cipher can anchor a prompt about ethics.
Link it to the prescribed title or the exhibition prompt you are working on, in your own words. See using maths examples in your essay and choosing exhibition objects.
Themes and study heading
Knowledge and politics Knowledge and technology Ethics
Responsibility in making and using mathematics.