Ethics And Moral Absolutionism: Fritz Haber

The studies of science (epistemology) and ethics have often been somewhat interrelated - after all, both originated from Western philosophy, the former growing out of the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-17th and early 18th centuries as natural philosophy led by theorists Issac Newton and René Descartes, the latter having been initiated in Ancient Greek thought, and having been developed as one of 5 primary studies present in their culture. There are many distinct theories on the subject of morality/ethics, of which none have been consistently adopted among a significantly large culture, however, the two primary theories advocated of which most subtheories come underneath are moral absolutionism and moral relativism.

Moral absolutionism advocates
It was there that he wrote his dissertation on organic chemistry, preceding his studies on the thermodynamics of gas reactions. After going to America to learn about the electro-chemical industry, he focused on the bonding of ammonia, which lead to the Haber-Bosch process, allowing fertiliser to be mass produced on a scale which, even today, still feeds over 3.5 billion people, half the world’s population. He moved to the Berlin Institute of Physical Chemistry, where he was situated when the First World War broke out. As a German nationalist, his patriotism lead him to become Head of the Chemical Department of the Department of General Resources for War, where he worked on developing poison gas technology using the same process that would later win him the Nobel Prize - the catalytic bonding of ammonia. He was enthusiastic about the usage of various forms of chemical warfare as he believed it would lead to less death overall (a morally utilitarian position) and the German troops being able to quickly take over France and Great Britain. Under his direction, over 150 tons of chlorine gas were produced to assist the war effort. As Haber celebrated his success, his wife commited suicide, ashamed by her husband’s ‘perversion of science’. It is important to note that Haber was not merely unaware of the effects of his creations, like some scientists we will see later, he was glad to see it developed, as he believed that developing more effective methods of killing would have the effects he wanted to see. His wife’s suicide did not phase him however, for he continued to develop even more deadly and poisonous weapons, such as phosgene gas, that was 13 times more effective than its chlorine counterpart. It could be said that his wife’s suicide actually impacted him severely as he had lost the one thing he cared about more than his research, causing him to