Microbial Perspectives: Mark Twain's Imaginative Experiment in Ethics

摘要

In his popular science book The Story of Germ Life (1897), Herbert W. Conn, a prominent American bacteriologist, dwells on the good rather than the ill that microscopic organisms do for humans. Because most bacteria are harmless or even helpful to human health, he concludes that "it is entirely unjust" to categorically condemn all bacteria. Framing what he sees as a fundamental misunderstanding of microbes as unjust, Conn extends human concepts of justice to the microbial world. In doing so, he not only anthropomorphizes microbes as agents of good or ill, but also interpolates them into a human system of ethics. To extend moral standing to nonhuman microscopic entities raises questions about the relation of microbial ethics to human ethics. By what standards should microbes be judged?