100% Discount || Practical Ethics- New Dynamics

The course has advocated neither a particular doctrine of ethics nor an exclusive approach to the subject. The diversity of the various methods and disciplines on which we draw and the range of the social and intellectual purposes we serve are too great to permit an orthodoxy to develop. Yet, as a result of our discussions and publications during these past two decades, it has become clear that there is a distinctive activity – what we have come to call practical ethics – that merits serious curricular and scholarly attention in the modern university, alongside the traditional disciplines in arts and sciences and in the professional schools. Three characteristics of practical ethics are significant.

First, practical ethics is a linking discipline, seeking to bridge theory and practice. But it differs from both applied ethics and professional ethics as they are usually understood. We remain as convinced as when we began that moral and political philosophy are essential disciplines for our work. At the same time, we now see more clearly that philosophical principles cannot be applied in any straightforward way to particular problems and policies. In the face of concrete dilemmas, we need to revise philosophical principles as much as we rely on them for justification. One reason is that principles often conflict: how, for example, should an attorney reconcile her commitment to a guilty client (a principle of loyalty) with her commitment to the truth (a principle of veracity)? Understanding such conflicts calls for critical analysis and elaboration of the principles, a process that is distinct from both deductive application and case-by-case intuition. We have also learned that moral reasoning as conventionally understood is not the only important element in deliberation about practical moral questions. Equally significant are moral perception – the ability to recognize an ethical issue in a complex set of circumstances – and moral character – the disposition to live ethically in a coherent way over time. A business executive, for example, may be disposed to act morally in his personal life, but may not see that moral issues are raised in his professional life when he decides to close a plant, or to accept the health risks of workplace hazards. To better understand these dimensions of moral life, practical ethics must draw on other disciplines and other forms of knowledge in addition to philosophy. Understanding ethical decisions in such professions as business, government, law, and medicine obviously requires knowledge of those professions, but beyond that it needs the assistance of moral psychology, sociology, economics and political science.