The end doesn’t justify the means. “A kind of Faustian shadow may be discerned in—or imposed on—the fascinating career of Wernher von Braun: a man so possessed of a vision, of an intellectual hunger, that any accommodation may be justified in its pursuit.
—Washington Star editorial, 20 June 1977” Wernher von Braun was one of the most controversial figures ethically. He helped us reach our goal of space yet was a former Nazi and used slave labor to build his V-2 missile. 7,000 British citizens died as a result of these rockets, but producing the rockets 20,000 more died. The U.S., knowing of von Braun’s Nazi past, recruited him to come to their space program. Had von Braun not been blinded by his goal of rocketry and rather considered his moral obligations, he would have undoubtedly been considered a national hero in the U.S. rocket program.
Wernher von Braun joined the SS in November 1933. It’s difficult to be sure of the precise reason why, but it was believed that he entered in order to keep his career. Keeping his goal of space exploration a possibility was important to him than his moral and ethical values. Wernher von Braun’s V-2 rocket was produced by laborers mainly from the Mittelbrau-Dora camp. He was most likely not given a choice in the decision to use them, but because of the Nazis extremes had no other choice. Wernher von Braun may not have been fully aware of the horrors but there is evidence that he knew of the horrors of starvation and death going on inside. Allied troops were sent to Germany to search down the Nazi scientists and their rockets. The U.S. troops were competing against Soviet troops for the scientists to aid them in their future Cold War. Von Braun escaped westward to meet the advancing U.S. troops...
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...t. Reaching the moon before the Soviets doesn’t justify the killing of thousands of laborers at Mittelbrau-Dora.
Works Cited
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Wernher von braun. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=29
Neufeld, M. J. (2002, February). The ss and concentration camp labor. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1433245?uid=2134&uid=2481280847&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=2481280837&uid=60&purchase-type=both&accessType=none&sid=21103997477367&showMyJstorPss=false&seq=3&showAccess=false
Crowley, I. F., & Trudeau, J. R. (2011, December 20).Wernher von braun an ethical analysis. Retrieved from http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-121811-161339/unrestricted/von_Braun_IQP_12_20_2011_bw_final.pdf
“Ethical Issues of the Milgram Experiment.” Associated Content. Yahoo, 8 November 2008. Web. 12 October 2011.
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It all started with the “Hungarian conspiracy” it had everyone convinced that the creation of a nuclear bomb possible, but that the German government was already doing research in this field of study and on such a weapon. To the rest of the world, the thought of Adolf Hitler might be the first to gain control of a weapon this destructiveness would be terrifying to the United States. Right, then they decided that the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt must be warned about the dangers and that the United States must begin its research department.As the planned gave way, Einstein was to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibilities and dangers of the atomic weapons, and later was taken to the president.Einsteins appointment was easy to get in te late summer of 1939. Hitler had just invaded Poland .and the war had just begun in Europe.After speaking with the President, he gathered his cabinet. and wanted to speak with his chief aide, after talking with him a small committee was set up called ...
The Space Race is remarkably similar to that of the arms race because of the parallel between the creation of the atomic bomb and the goal of reaching the moon. The United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively established its place as the technologically superior nation; however, major milestones in space achieved early by the Soviets damaged America’s reputation. In 1957, Soviet scientists shocked the world by successfully launching the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, beyond the Kármán Line (the boundary of space). This amazing breakthrough “rattled American self-confidence. It cast doubts on America’s vaunted scientific superiority and raised some sobering military questions.” This blow to national pride along with the fear that the Soviets could potentially launch ICBMs from space led to “Rocket fever”. The sudden wave of nationalism and the desire to build a space program worthier to that of the Soviet Union led to the...
The United Space endured a long, competitive, tumultuous, and primed-to-explode relationship with the Soviet Union since its inception. The Space Race was perhaps the greatest spectacle of scientific engineering in the first 5.755 millennia. The U.S. had to reclaim its superior status after the Soviets launched Sputnick I into orbit on October, 4, 1957, and launched Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961 as the first human in space. Kennedy knew that the American people wanted a victory in the space race, and realized that, being so far away, the United Space could achieve it. Then, on September 12, 1962, President Kennedy gave the “Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort”. This address is best known by this paragraph:
(“USHMM”) People described Reinhard Heydrich as a mean cruel cold hearted person. He was really good at science he went to Reform Gymnasium because they where good in science. He Wanted to go in WWI but he was not...
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Martin, M.W. and Schinzinger, R. (2005) Ethics in Engineering. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
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In 1930, young, teenage Mengele completed high school and left his home to study medicine at Munich University in Germany. Adolf Hitler was stirring up the Bavarian people at this time with his “anti-Jewish” ideas. He attracted large crowds, who gather...
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“The end justifies the means” is the famous quote of Machiavelli (Viroli, 1998) which puts the emphasis of morality on the finale results rather than the actions undertaken to achieve them. Is this claim true in the field of the natural sciences? Whether atomic bombings, as a mean used to end World War II, justifies the death of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What is moral limitation in the acquisition of knowledge in the natural sciences? How is art constrained by moral judgment?