Question

how would i apply the princple of privacy to charles darwin and his reluctance to publish his results on natural selection?

(princple of privacy= respect personal privacy and confidentality)

as in, how would i explain that he had no moral obligations to the science community to publish his results?

Answer 1

I believe that Darwin did have a moral obligation to publish his scientific results. Scientists also are obliged to present as much data as possible, rather than rushing to a publisher with incomplete information. In the time between the start of developing his theories and the publication of <i>Origin of the Species</i>, he worked on other publication, had health problems, and continued to develop and refine his evolution theories.

Check this site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_of_Darwin's_theory

Answer 2

thats what i think too, but i'm supposed to argue for the other side.

Answer 3

I suppose you could argue that no one has an obligation to publish what s/he knows. The theory of evolution wasn't of immediate benefit to mankind -- as say a cure for a deadly disease would greatly benefit the world.