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Article ID: CBB356289667

Ciência e Ética: Fritz Haber e a Guerra Química (2021)

Circumscribere: International Journal for the History of Science
Volume: 28
Pages: 30-30
Publication date: 2021
Language: Portuguese

DOI: 10.23925/1980-7651.2021v28;p30

URI: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/circumhc/article/view/56969

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Dentre as várias inovações utilizadas na Primeira Grande Guerra, como blindados, aviões e submarinos, os gases químicos, utilizados por Alemanha, França e Inglaterra, mostraram-se como uma das mais letais e temíveis armas já vistas, cujo desenvolvimento valeu-se da ação direta de vários cientistas, entre eles, Fritz Haber, alemão de ascendência judaica, ganhador do prêmio Nobel de química de 1918, que não só encabeçou as pesquisas e o desenvolvimento de uma arma baseada em gás, como também liderou sua aplicação no campo de batalha. Se a ciência havia despertado a ilusão de que seria para a humanidade a encarnação do mito de Prometeu, a Primeira Guerra mostrou uma face bem menos nobre, para dizer o mínimo, frente aos horrores oriundos do uso bélico sistemático de avanços científicos, levando à reflexão de que talvez fosse mais adequado associar-se a ela a figura do doutor Victor Frankenstein. O cientista e, por extensão, a Ciência, representava enfim um caminho para salvação ou destruição da humanidade? Mas seria simples e pertinente classificar a ciência de forma tão maniqueísta e julgá-la moralmente em decorrência de suas descobertas e aplicações, mesmo quando se trata de seu uso bélico? E fazê-lo com seus principais representantes, os cientistas? Estas são questões levantadas por este trabalho, que busca uma análise dos aspectos morais do uso do conhecimento científico, à luz da História da Ciência, abordando dificuldades de fazê-la sem incorrer em anacronismo, ingenuidade ou superficialidade. [English translation by DeepL.com: Among the various innovations used in World War I, such as armored vehicles, planes and submarines, chemical gases, used by Germany, France and England, proved to be one of the most lethal and fearsome weapons ever seen. Their development was the direct result of the work of several scientists, including Fritz Haber, a German of Jewish descent and winner of the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who not only spearheaded the research and development of a gas-based weapon, but also led its application on the battlefield. If science had awakened the illusion that it would be for humanity the incarnation of the myth of Prometheus, the First World War showed a far less noble face, to say the least, in the face of the horrors that came from the systematic warlike use of scientific advances, leading to the reflection that perhaps it would be more appropriate to associate it with the figure of Doctor Victor Frankenstein. Did the scientist and, by extension, science, finally represent a path to the salvation or destruction of humanity? But would it be simple and pertinent to classify science in such a Manichean way and judge it morally as a result of its discoveries and applications, even when it comes to its warlike use? And to do so with its main representatives, the scientists? These are the questions raised by this work, which seeks to analyze the moral aspects of the use of scientific knowledge in the light of the History of Science, addressing the difficulties of doing so without incurring in anachronism, naivety or superficiality.]

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