Lee Brandt

October 23, 2015

Varying Shades of Grey: An Analysis of Hoffmanns Shade Theory

In ones own world of thought, much might seem black and white, but in reality, vary rarely does
pure good or pure evil exist. Much of ones decisions fall into what is known as a Grey area. While making
good decisions would be much easier if this gray area were defined, it is not and thus ones personal ethics
must weigh the benefits and consequences of any decision. However even considering personal ethics one
can still do and create evil. It is this this lack of definition, the ethical gray in which one makes decisions,
that Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate professor of Chemistry at Cornell warns of in his American Chemical
Society editorial, Mind The Shade. Within it, Hoffmann attempts to develop an idea as to why little in
science clearly falls into good or evil.
Hoffmann states, Each of us had a role in the use of chemicals. That use does immense good.
And just sometimes does harm to people or property. Even though molecules are molecules, not in and of
themselves good or evil. He argues that rarely do scientists ever aim for deeds of evil but these deeds are
the reality of gray decisions. Ones intent in science may not be for evil but even the tiniest decisions can
hold great consequences and require consideration on the greatest depth. Hoffmann cites the idea of
selective shading, or the selection of small, seemingly harmless, gray actions of evil for the idea of greater
good. The simple action of overlooking the result that hints, even if ever so slightly, at a side effect of a drug
seems innocent when it is solvent and nothing is concrete. However, the cumulative effects of this selective
shading cause great evil to exist.
These type of seemingly insignificant gray decisions are also made on the small rejection of
responsibility but scale these decisions up such as the mass production of a substance and the moral

responsibility is vast. Hoffman examines the manufacturing of Zyklon B, a German pesticide used in the
Holocaust as a gaseous agent in concentration camps. While the producers of this collection molecules
may hold no legal responsibility for the acts of evil their product created, they enabled the murder of
millions and moral responsibility is substantive. However, the consideration of ethical responsibility for
every action should not fall solely on the producer of a chemical. For doing so Hoffmann argues,
constructs a guilt-ridden world where people are to be condemned, by others or themselves, for innocent
creation
While this world needs no more sources of guilt, in chemistry one must weigh the ethical
consequences. Even the smallest decisions are real and thus require as much ethical consideration as any
other. Hoffmann ends argument of shade theory with the statement We should be grateful that we are
presented with choices that only human beings can make. Society should be grateful that humans make
choices and not other animals, because humans, though also as the decisions they make, have ethics. His
hypothesis is valid in many aspects however one fault is found. Ethics, in itself, is ambiguous, because
certain right and wrong truly dont exist, just the constant strive to do one or the other within a world of
varying shades of grey. Ethics argues that a lie is a lie but the moral effects of the lie vary. Consider the
construct of a white lie. It is a lie that apparently holds little to no detriment to its benefits, however the
problem is the lies stacking up, which leads to catastrophe. Unlike reactions in a perfect world, such as a
chemistry problem, an action in the grey in always has multiple products. The real problem with ethics is
compartmentalization. The act of separating decisions into categories fails to consider that a they all affect
ones ethics. But to counter this fault, one must consider that ethics is not something that can be measured
because each persons ethics is unique and contain infinite variables, thus the Hoffmanns shade theory
may be more of a warning of ethical faults in science than a hypothesis. Humans complexity is what
creates ethical but is also what creates the construct of grey rather than an ideal black and white.