Ethics:
WissTec R&D Services' understanding of science and scholarship follows old, humanistic traditions with emphasis on broad, universal education and ethical responsibility. It is firmly connected to the intellectual tradition of the many jewish scientists, that fled the holocaust and in exile developed nuclear weapons to defeat the evil of which they knew, that it must not prevail. But this knowledge, this step forward in the ascend of men, came with a price. It endowed man with weapons worthy of the ancient gods, but without establishing sufficient maturity. Our understanding in that regard is excellently summarized by the following video-collage from "The Ascend of Man", an educational series by the jewish, role model scientist Jacob Bronowski:
In the last decades the knowledge about this way of science has been increasingly forgotten. In addition, many do not agree, that becoming a professional researcher requires learning sound ethical judgement and thus a very broad, long and consequently expensive education. Titles and high citation metrics are often seen as the hallmark of academic achievements, whereas building and maintaining the ability to make sound judgments and the strength of character to act in accordance with your own insights is seen as waste of time. It is seen as something that sets one back in the competition for funds and attention. Today the young aspiring scientist will often learn all skills to build weapons, but few to build the judgement capabilities to counter lies and propaganda and even less to build the strength of character to stand up to tyranny and evil. The young scientists and scholars learn to obey, endure and not to question the authorities that could affect citations, deny funding, give bad grades or deny access to institutions and titles. Way to often only raw power rules in the contemporary world of science, not truth and not the better argument. The PhD has all to often become the certificate of high technical skill combined with ability to endure bad working conditions for mediocre payment as well as not questioning authority. The result seems to increasingly be the kind of researcher, that is fit to serve the next autocrat or worse, but who is unable to maintain the social institutions necessary for a functioning democracy.
However, we do not agree and we do not concur with this step backwards. For this, we faced a lot of adversity, as if we were dinosaurs who will die anyway. As if we were an important data point, that finally proves communists right, that capitalism will self-destruct. As if we were an important data point for capitalists, that proofs them right, that too much general education is not a market-evolutionary stable strategy.
The understanding of the foundations of the order established after world war 2 and in the cold war is vanishing. The social institutions, that should gard us against the hybris of perceiving ourselves as gods, despite having access to weapons worthy of gods, rot in plain sight. This will be the demise of man, if not stopped. We are no gods, but the weapons are real.
WissTec R&D Services does provide services for the development of mission critical, high security systems.
For this reason WissTec R&D Services has a foundational ethics codex whose violation will have consequences for employees. That includes being fired for severe violations.
This ethics code, aside from guiding our professional conduct, determines for whom we will develop military systems or corresponding dual use systems.
Core Values:
The primate of truth, logic and discourse:
As Dante Alighieri envisioned in his inferno of the divine comedy, the deepest layer of hell is defined not by its natural characteristics, like e.g. brimstone and fire, but by the characteristics of its inhabitants, the treacherous, whose common conduct can be described as systematic disregard of the above values. As an exemplary execution of these values and discourse culture we point to "Aufklärung und Kritik" (German) .
Democratic legitimation of power:
The power of the state needs democratic legitimation, if it ought provide stability to a just and fair society.
The rule of law:
Without the rule of law no big society can be coordinated, be it for better or for worse. However, we do not subscribe to a simple notion of legal positivism. It can too easily can be used to subvert an open society and rationalize ethically untenable conduct. Hence, the rule of law as hold up by us must at least include an analog to the Radbruch formula as valid and followed principle.
Republicanism:
Republicanism, that is the implementation of a clear demarcation between
private and public affairs, is one of the oldest social system building blocks
providing fail-safes against tyranny. While this is a principle of state
building, WissTec R&D Services follows its own variation of republicanism
as a private organization:
Any personal religious, philosophical or political view, that is not related
to our foundational ethics or business objective is private and of no concern
in any evaluation of employees or customers.
The open society:
The open society is a term, maybe most notably, promoted and defended by the philosopher Karl Popper. It incorporates many of the other core values. Of central importance is the discussion of the paradox of tolerance and the insight of Ralws that it is, to a certain degree, required to tolerate the intolerant. However, being politically realistic, maintaining an open society then requires it to have a significant power advantage over the antagonists it tolerates. But if endowed with significant power the society needs resilient systems to avoid capture by the antagonists. Classical building blocks for such resilient systems are the separation of powers and associated systems of checks and balances. In conclusion the open society must use force and thus be able to do so, if doing otherwise creates significant risk of ceasing to exist as an open society.
Individual freedom:
The Enlightenment values, especially the primate of truth, logic and discourse, have well known problems, when it comes to social coordination, as the well established Arrow's theorem signifies. However, if a society maximizes individual freedom, it can bypass these by not being required to solve them in the first place. Lack of conformity and incoherent individual preferences are no problem, if they are not required to be solved in a socially coherent way. This lack of conformity and visibly incoherent individual preferences is probably the most visible signifier of a free and open society. It is hosting many subcultures with diverging values, preferences and life objectives, while being peaceful and stable at the same time. This is also the reason why a free and open society has to very carefully maintain a proper republic with a viable demarcation between private and public affairs.
Individual property rights:
This is a central cornerstone of practical implementations of individual freedom. We are well aware of its potential for abuse, if improperly implemented. However, we think, that these problems can be solved and point again to Rawls and his theory of justice as starting point for devising solutions.
Political realism:
To succeed at maintaining an open society, it is necessary view the political world as it is. In this respect political realism is mandatory for success. None of the above objectives, even if successfully archived, can be maintained by the politically naive, that reject it.
The learning organization:
The learning organization as described by Peter M. Senge, is a modern systemic view about building and maintaining successful social organizations. It has the advantage that it allows to build such a organization without double standards regarding this value set. We strongly advise to read the linked book.