Multicultural Ethical Stance

Ethics, referring to the philosophy of morals and moral choices made by an individual within his / her interactions with other ones, concerns involving the behavior that is good or bad, or in another way right or wrong [Remley, T. P., Jr., & Herlihy, B. (2020)]. Ethics in multicultural settings manifests an ever-changing and transient nature in which consideration for diverse cultural elements are nested such as privilege, power, responsibility, sensibility, advocacy, and so forth. Prudence, cautiousness, good judgment, integrity, respectfulness, benevolence, and contributing to the common good of the society and humanity are important tenets of ethical stance in settings, particularly in multicultural ones.

Among the very basic principles that guide scientists, as well as many other scholars, are those expressed as respect for the integrity of knowledge, collegiality, honesty, objectivity, and openness. In addition to these principles, social and clinical value, scientific validity, independent reviewing, informed consents and full respect for the subjects should also be noted as the guiding principles within the framework of ethical research framework.

As another concept, ethical multiculturalism constitutes the application of moral principles like beneficence and respect for individuals and communities, in such a way that shows attentive sensitivity to different cultures while carrying out research across various societies. Fromm states that humanistic ethics is the practical application of “the art of living” grounded in the theoretical study of human nature [Fromm, E. (2006)]. While in general sense, ethics refers to living the right way, its relation to scientific principles has to do with the correct interpretation of scientific endeavors and their results by paying full respect to the copyrights of others with regard to their work. Human research is guided by overarching international ethical principles, with adopted frameworks providing the necessary foundational aspects to conduct research in the most humane way possible [Petkov, C. I. et al. (2022)]. An ethical stance is for all researchers, scholars, practitioners and scientists as well as everyone engaged in scientific discipline through the sharing of common goals and values. Ranging from the way research is performed to its organization, ethics is also at the intersection of assessment and understanding of the work done. In the field of social science, the role of ethics and degree of transparency regarding personal values held by researchers have been through changes as the world has progressed. As a result, the new paradigm that has arisen as of the 21st century has posed its challenges to researchers for them to keep abreast of evolving research methods as well as the underpinning ethical considerations that enable or preclude research to be inclusive of cultural diversity [Msoroka, M. S., & Amundsen, D. (2018)].

Cultural values and beliefs have impact on the process of ethical deliberation and enable researchers not to simply spare people from harm, but also to empower them as the co- creators of knowledge for emancipatory outcomes [Melé, D., & Sánchez-Runde, C. (2013)]. On the other side of the pendulum is the ethical challenges with cultural diversity, which is for different reasons. One reason is thatdifferences exist on moral perceptions and judgments among different cultures which may bring about tensions manifested between universal ethical principles and local or cultural ethical norms, called moral universalism and moral cultural relativism, perspective [Melé, D., & Sánchez-Runde, C. (2013)].

Modern scientific thinking, above all, has adopted the principles concerning systemic properties, addressing them by disclosing the spontaneous processes related to self- organization in a dynamical system, in a state distant from the equilibrium point and in proximity to the disequilibrium point without any existence of an external force acting on the system itself. In view of this, evolution, order and complexity unearth the relationship between natural and social worlds challenging the dichotomy between them. The employment of Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, deep learning methods and so forth require multifarious integrated methods to bring about optimal solutions to problems involving those of complex systems. Thus, ethical decision- making frameworks and strategies related to big data and AI applications help one be assisted with regard to the identification of the related problems in different settings and thinking methodically with a deliberative compensating process so that tensions between different conflicting aspects can systematically be managed. The values related to ethical issues should, therefore, be addressed, in a way that entails practicality, applicability, adaptiveness and flexibility rather than theory- driven aspects so that dilemmas can be addressed and critical decision-making directed beyond theoretical positions focusing on the applied aspects under dynamic and evolving conditions. Some points associated with ethics and data are informed consent providing the person in question why data are collected, from whom and how, its way of storage, length of keeping and who will have access to it, all of which also have legal dimensions. Another important aspect is data transparency which implies openness, communication and accountability. It also refers to the control flow of the data in machine learning algorithm, whereas in medicine, transparency helps the enabling of evidence-based decisions critical to foster trust among the related parties. Used in science, engineering, business and social sciences, transparency is practiced in different systems, while in health and research characterized by evolving landscape of big health data, there are issues related to the use, sharing and reusing of big data as important features. Overall, technologies and data science due to their intrinsic complexity are evident across all dimensions of modern life, which requires those dealing with data to ultimately engage with the ethical issues. [Karaca, Y. (2022)].

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