Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Collective humaneffort must bedirected towardsthe developmentof a code of ethicsbroad enough toencompass thespirit of older codesand inclusive ofthe new variablesbrought about bythe revolution inknowledge areashas made concerning the knowledgesociety have not kept up with the wideningand deepening of the gaps between thesocieties of the North and those of theSouth. The problematic of varying ratesof development today creates symbolicfacts that exercise frightening control overaccess to knowledge. These facts produceforms of marginalisation, isolation, andsuffocation that have compounded andcontinue to compound the disparity amongcountries of the world, especially betweenthe wealthy nations and the developingworld.The official position in some developedcountries remains ambiguous. It speakswith two tongues and employs doublestandards. It finds no contradiction inits proclaimed positions and thus helpsto create further forms of unequalrelationship in the world. This questionwas very accurately analysed by the 2005UNESCO report Towards Knowledge Societies(UNESCO, 2005a, in Arabic). The 2001UNESCO Universal Declaration onDiversity considered protection of culturaldiversity a human right, calling at the sametime for it to be viewed as a moral demandthat must be respected.The advances of the knowledge societyraise several issues that must be resolvedwith Arab participation. Is the worldtoday moving towards becoming a merevictim of the “soft” but overwhelmingtechnological revolution, a revolution thatis difficult to stop or divert? In thinkingabout knowledge societies, will we continueto use approaches and ethical systems thatfail to assimilate the changes taking placein the world?By way of example, the most explosiveissue in the area of knowledge societyethics is that of the limits of innovationin biology and the life sciences. Discoveryof the genome, today considered oneof the greatest advances in science andtechnology, has prompted some to relaunch“gene selection” in the frameworkof the “liberal inclination towardseugenics.” This has led to consideration ofthe possibilities provided by biotechnologyand its accelerating breakthroughs for earlydiagnosis of artificially fertilised embryosbefore they are implanted in the womb(Habermas, 2001). In his book Consequencesof the Biotechnology Revolution, FrancisFukuyama deals with the relationshipbetween the new biotechnology revolutionand the value system, highlighting theimportance of the subject and the necessityof creating concrete foundations to guideit (Fukuyama, 2002).Collective human effort must thereforebe directed towards the developmentof a code of ethics broad enough toencompass the spirit of older codes.Above all, it must include the new variablesbrought about by the unprecedentedrevolution in knowledge areas andmodern communications networks. Anew generation of crimes and ethicalcontradictions accompanies the ongoingrevolution and defines certain ofits repercussions. This is evident in manyof the double standards that governinternational relations, requiring that wework collectively to reach thresholds ofharmony and balance that create andguarantee more humane internationalrelations. We must urge that the newethical framework for knowledge societiesadvance our hope to build a moreflourishing, humane world, founded onvalues of human solidarity, coexistence,cooperation, and connectedness.CONCLUSIONIt is no simple matter to pin down theconcept of the “knowledge society”and its synonyms or to grasp its relatedconcepts. The process of argumentationfollowed in this chapter has constructedseveral arguments that have helped usto take a closer look at the concept andits corollaries. We have in the processconsciously dispensed with two importantfacets of the concept of knowledge:first, significations implied by the term“knowledge” that have been inheritedfrom Arab historical tradition, and,second, the positivist implications that54 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009