Does ethics have adequate general theories? Our analysis shows that this question does not have a straightforward answer since the key terms are ambiguous. So we should not concentrate on the answer but on the question itself. “Ethics” stands for many things, but we let that pass. “Adequate” may refer to varied arrays of methodological principles which are seldom fully articulated in ethics. “General” is a notion with at least three meanings. Different kinds of generality may be at cross-purposes, so (...) we must not expect theories to be general in sundry senses. “Theory,” for that matter, is itself ambiguous. Some thinkers say that ethics cannot have theories, while others deny it. We doubt whether opposing parties are talking about the same things.No wonder, then, that controversies in ethics are long-lasting and unproductive. We hope that the methodology we have presented will alleviate some of them. The examples we chose show that this is feasible. Views such as Hare's and Jonsen and Toulmin's which are seemingly wide apart, show convergence if we put them in a methodological perspective.Our analysis also suggests that many alleged differences between science and ethics could fade away if methodology is brought to bear on them. Specifically, the idea that ethics compares poorly with science in view of limited generality, or poor means of justification, is unfounded. Those who defend this view over-rate the powers of science. (shrink)

This article offers a general discussion of the concept of false hope. Its ultimate aim is to clarify the meaning and the relevance of that concept for medicine and medical research. In the first part, the concept of hope is discussed. I argue that hope is more than a combination of a desire and a belief about the probability that the desire will be fulfilled. Imagination and anticipation are as well components of hope. I also discuss if hope implies orientation (...) to action. In the second part, I examine the concept of false hope. I show that hope is false if it cannot be justified epistemically. There is, I argue, an intimate relation between false hope and ignorance. Hope is justified—“realistic”—when the hoping person knows and accepts experts’ judgement about the probability of hope fulfillment. I then argue that what matters for evaluating a person’s hope is not only whether it is realistic, but also whether it is reasonable in the light of the aim and goals that a person strives for in his life. Part three goes into the question of what is morally wrong about having or causing false hope. In the fourth part, the relevance is shown of the insights from the previous parts for the debate on false hope in medicine and clinical research. (shrink)

Empirische Ethik ist ein relativ neues Vorgehen in der Ethikforschung, das vor allem in der Medizinethik angewandt wird. Dieser Beitrag bespricht die kennzeichnenden Charakteristika der empirischen Ethik und unterscheidet zwischen generalistischer und kontextualistischer empirischer Ethik. Zuerst werden verschiedene Beispiele beider Arten von empirischer Ethik vorgestellt, danach werden für beide Ansätze mögliche Schwachpunkte diskutiert. Die Schlussfolgerung des Beitrages besteht darin, dass das Entstehen der empirischen Ethik eine positive Entwicklung ist. Empirische Ethik sollte jedoch als eine Ergänzung der traditionellen philosophischen Medizinethik betrachtet (...) werden, und nicht als die bessere Alternative. (shrink)

In this article I examine whether Moral Foundations Theory can fulfil the promises that Haidt claims for the theory: that it will help in developing new approaches to moral education and to the moral conflicts that divide our diverse society. I argue that, first, the model that Haidt suggests for understanding the plurality of moralities—a shared foundation underlying diverse moralities—does not help to overcome conflicts. A better understanding of the nature and background of moral conflicts can lead to a more (...) respectful attitude towards people with conflicting views, but need not contribute to ending conflicts. Second, I show that pervasive moral conflicts should be dealt with on the level of politics. They require a morality of compromising. Third, I examine why this approach does not seem to work in the USA. (shrink)

The double subjectivity of conscience and the need to test conscientious objections -/- Abstract In spite of the collapse of the traditional objective concept of conscience and the subsequent subjectivation of conscience, conscientious objections are still often considered as a valid ground for exemption from legal and professional obligations. Conscientious objections are seen as more serious than ordinary moral objections. It is not evident why this is so. I argue, with Niklas Luhmann, that the function of conscience is to protect (...) the moral core of a person’s identity. Overruling conscientious objections threatens this core. Claims of conscience are usually founded on the right of freedom of conscience. This right is not absolute. I discuss the view of Richard Arneson who rejects the right of freedom of conscience and defends the right against conscience. I agree with Arneson that, at the one hand, conscientious objectors may constitute a threat to the social and legal order when their objections are not recognised and, at the other hand, too easy giving in to conscientious objections may also threaten the viability of social and legal order. That is why it is needed to determine when conscientious objections cannot be taken at face value, but should be subjected to a series of tests. The aim of these tests is to contain the number of objectors. I discuss 6 criteria for determining whether conscientious objections ground an exemption to legal and professional obligations. At the end of the article I discuss the conscientious objections of medical doctors. (shrink)

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.

In medical ethics, business ethics, and some branches of political philosophy (multi-culturalism, issues of just allocation, and equitable distribution) the literature increasingly combines insights from ethics and the social sciences. Some authors in medical ethics even speak of a new phase in the history of ethics, hailing "empirical ethics" as a logical next step in the development of practical ethics after the turn to "applied ethics." The name empirical ethics is ill-chosen because of its associations with "descriptive ethics." Unlike descriptive (...) ethics, however, empirical ethics aims to be both descriptive and normative. The first question on which I focus is what kind of empirical research is used by empirical ethics and for which purposes. I argue that the ultimate aim of all empirical ethics is to improve the context-sensitivity of ethics. The second question is whether empirical ethics is essentially connected with specific positions in meta-ethics. I show that in some kinds of meta-ethical theories, which I categorize as broad contextualist theories, there is an intrinsic need for connecting normative ethics with empirical social research. But context-sensitivity is a goal that can be aimed for from any meta-ethical position. (shrink)

This paper focuses on coherence and consistency as elements of moral integrity, arguing that several kinds of—mostly second-order—virtues contribute to establishing coherence and consistency in a person's judgements and behaviour. The virtues relevant for integrity always accompany other, substantive virtues, and their associated values, principles and rules. In moral education we teach children all kinds of substantive virtues with integrity as our goal. Nevertheless, many adults do not attain moral integrity, although they are clearly not immoral. What precisely are they (...) lacking? Education for moral integrity should focus on strengthening motivational self-sufficiency, furthering critical and imaginative thinking and promoting moral unity. (shrink)

Niemand dacht oorspronkelijker, speelser en scherper dan Ludwig Wittgenstein, en hij wist het. Van de kristallijnen helderheid in de 'Tractatus' tot de alledaagse onoverzichtelijkheid van de 'Filosofische onderzoekingen' blijft zijn denken één lange worsteling tegen de betovering van ons intellect door de schier eindeloze variatie van vermommingen waarin taal de gedachte aan het oog onttrekt.0Wittgenstein wist dat hij een bijzonder talent had, en zijn visie op zichzelf is zeker zo boeiend als zijn kijk op de wereld. In zijn brieven en (...) dagboeken treedt een geniale, lastige, komische en ontroerende man naar voren die in leven en in sterven een onuitwisbare indruk maakte op de mensen die hem kenden.0Bert Keizer biedt een heldere en toegankelijke introductie in leven en werk van Wittgenstein. Hij bespreekt diens brieven, dagboeken en belangrijkste werken: de 'Tractatus', de 'Filosofische onderzoekingen' en 'Over zekerheid'. Dat doet hij gedreven en enthousiast, zonder belerend te worden.0. (shrink)

Artikelen vanuit verschillende invalshoeken over het wezen en de oorsprong van het kwaad en de omgang ermee in verschillende culturen.

Hoewel depressie veel voorkomt, tasten we wat betreft de aard en behandeling ervan nog altijd in het duister. Dit komt volgens Van den Bergh omdat de stoornis vooral wordt benaderd als hersenziekte of hersenaandoening. De nadruk wordt daarbij gelegd op onze (neuro)biologische gevoeligheid zonder dat we echt stilstaan bij de maatschappelijke factoren die op deze gevoeligheid inwerken. Nog minder, aldus de auteur, wordt ingegaan op de culturele bronnen van deze impact. Deze blinde vlek in de depressieduiding stelt Van den Bergh (...) in zijn boek centraal, en werpt zo een tegenlicht op het gangbare begrip van deze ‘stemmingsstoornis’. (shrink)

Overzicht van de geschiedenis, ontwikkelingen en toekomst van de ethiek als wetenschappelijke discipline in Nederland.

The essays brought together in this volume are written from the dual perspectives of philosophy and psychoanalytic theory.

This collection of philosophical essays addresses important issues in the arts, encompassing painting, sculpture, photography, film and architecture.

Unter welchen Bedingungen kann es als ethisch vertretbar gelten, Menschen in biomedizinischen Experimenten als Probanden einzusetzen? Bert Heinrichs unternimmt es, die Ethik der Forschung am Menschen grundlegend und systematisch zu erschließen. Seine ethische Rahmentheorie wird im Hinblick auf drei kontrovers diskutierte Problemkomplexe ausgewertet, nämlich die Forschung mit Minderjährigen, randomisierte klinische Studien und Forschung in Entwicklungsländern. Sie soll helfen, wesentliche Orientierung bei der konkreten Problemlösung zu geben.

In spite of the remarkable progress made in the burgeoning field of social neuroscience, the neural mechanisms that underlie social encounters are only beginning to be studied and could —paradoxically— be seen as representing the ‘dark matter’ of social neuroscience. Recent conceptual and empirical developments consistently indicate the need for investigations, which allow the study of real-time social encounters in a truly interactive manner. This suggestion is based on the premise that social cognition is fundamentally different when we are in (...) interaction with others rather than merely observing them. In this article, we outline the theoretical conception of a second-person approach to other minds and review evidence from neuroimaging, psychophysiological studies and related fields to argue for the development of a second-person neuroscience, which will help neuroscience to really go social; this may also be relevant for our understanding of psychiatric disorders construed as disorders of social cognition. (shrink)

The philosophical essays collected here are predicated on the conviction that we live in a time when all-encompassing philosophical systems can no longer be seriously entertained as a true reflection of extant reality. Instead, an indefinite number of perspectives on - or discursive appropriations of - what is thought of as 'reality' are possible. Sometimes they diverge and sometimes they intersect in surprising ways, as these essays show. While the belief in an all-inclusive philosophical system is rejected, the author shows (...) that every perspective displays a coherence and illuminating power of its own.<BR> The collection is divided into two parts. The first considers philosophy, the individual and society, covering themes including the deleterious effects of capitalism on natural ecosystems, the modern conception of 'immortality' in Nietzsche's thought, Lacan's provocative interpretation of capitalist discourse, the current status of the humanities in universities, individual autonomy, the meaning of 'identification', global 'terrorism', and Plato's philosophical self-subversion. The second part gathers together perspectives on the arts and society, with the author arguing that reflections on cinema, architecture and music never isolate these arts from social concerns, but demonstrate their interconnectedness. (shrink)

This volume compares the western ideas of knowledge with the African. It aims at creating a mirror through which the western knowledge culture can look at itself through an unusual and interesting angle. The culture of Sub-Saharan Africa is the substance from which we, in this book, have tried to construe an epistemological mirror.

Foucault nous a donne de multiples potentialites pour repenser certaines des questions classiques posees par l histoire et les sciences des religions. Cet ouvrage fait etat des nombreux excursus du philosophe vers les domaines de la spiritualite antique, de l histoire du christianisme primitif, de l ascetisme chretien, ou encore de la question des marginalites religieuses. Il est l occasion, surtout, de reflechir sur quelques uns des - outils - mis en place par le philosophe et de montrer comment ceux-ci (...) peuvent se reveler pertinents pour saisir les phenomenes religieux de notre modernite. Des phenomenes qui se comprennent a l interieur de problemes historiques, politiques et sociaux, culturels. Seule maniere, repete Foucault, de nous proteger contre les syntheses toutes faites et les decoupages familiers, mais aussi d ouvrir la reflexion a l epreuve de la realite et de l actualite. Jean-Francois Bert est Maitre d enseignement et de recherche a l Universite de Lausanne. Specialiste de l histoire des sciences humaines, il developpe une nouvelle approche qui se veut attentive aux pratiques et aux techniques savantes. Il a codirige le Cahier de l Herne sur Foucault (2011), et a participe a l edition, en Pleiade, des oeuvres du philosophe.". (shrink)

Drawing on his extensive experience as both a medical practitioner and a patient, acclaimed author, award-winning physician, and ethicist Philip Hébert creates a brave and intimate portrait of the complex ethical questions raised by revolutionary advances in medical diagnosis and treatment. Philip Hébert addresses the complex ethical questions raised by revolutionary advances in medical treatment. This work expands upon Hébert's previous book, "Doing Right," and extends his knowledge of the field beyond medical professionals to reach the patients they treat.

In this article, I present two conceptual problems for Craver's mutual manipulability account of constitutive relevance in mechanisms. First, constitutive relevance threatens to imply causal relevance despite Craver (and Bechtel)'s claim that they are strictly distinct. Second, if (as is intuitively appealing) parthood is defined in terms of spatio-temporal inclusion, then the mutual manipulability account is prone to counterexamples, as I show by a case of endosymbiosis. I also present a methodological problem (a case of experimental underdetermination) and formulate two (...) partial, but fallible solutions based on the notions of parthood and synchronicity. (shrink)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an ethical framework for the marketing of corporate social responsibility. Methods The approach is a conceptual one based on virtue ethics and on the corporate identity literature. Furthermore, empirical research results are used to describe the opportunities and pitfalls of using marketing communication tools in the strategy of building a virtuous corporate brand. Results/conclusions An ethical framework that addresses the paradoxical relation between the consequentialist perspective many proponents of the marketing of (...) CSR adopt, and ethical perspectives which criticize an exclusive profit-oriented approach to CSR. Furthermore, three CSR strategies in relation to the marketing of CSR are discussed. For each CSR strategy it is explored how a corporation could avoid falling into the promise/performance gap. (shrink)

"Op 9 december 2011 was het precies zeventig jaar geleden dat de Joodse rechtsfilosoof, vrijdenker en humanist Leo Polak (1880-1941) in het concentratiekamp Sachsenhausen overleed. De essentie van zijn vrijdenken en humanisme getuigt van het besef van de verbondenheid van alle mensen als wezens die zich zo volledig en harmonieus mogelijk moeten kunnen ontplooien, en de erkenning van de mensheid als hoogste eenheid, hoger dan alle andere collectiviteiten die loyaliteit van mensen zouden kunnen eisen: kerk, Christendom, natie. Deze bundel bevat (...) als kern een drietal beroemde en beruchte redevoeringen van Polak uit de jaren 1931-1933; deze waren idealistisch van aard en vonden veel instemming bij met name ongelovigen. Daarnaast zijn er diverse bijdragen die een goed en soms nieuw beeld geven van de rol en betekenis van Polak voor de vrijdenkers; zo had hij op belangrijke momenten een koersbepalende rol in de geschiedenis van de vrijdenkerij."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Der Begriff ‚Bioethik‘ bezeichnet zumeist denjenigen Teilbereich der Angewandten Ethik, der sich mit dem Umgang mit Leben bzw. Lebewesen beschäftigt. Die Bioethik lässt sich ihrerseits in die Teilbereiche Medizinethik, Tierethik und Umweltethik untergliedern. Auch wenn diese Untergliederung durchaus gebräuchlich ist, zeigt sie doch, dass thematische Zuordnungen und disziplinäre Grenzziehungen in der Angewandten Ethik nicht unproblematisch sind.

Die Forschungs- und Wissenschaftsethik ist diejenige Teildisziplin der Angewandten Ethik, die sich mit ethischen Problemen von Forschung und Wissenschaft beschäftigt. Man kann die Forschungsethik in drei Bereiche gliedern: Ein erster Bereich hat Prinzipien und Normen zum Gegenstand, die für alle Wissenschaftler als Wissenschaftler gelten. Ein zweiter Bereich ist mit Methoden befasst, die in der Wissenschaft zur Anwendung kommen. Ein dritter Bereich der Forschungsethik beschäftigt sich schließlich mit den Zielen von Forschung bzw. mit ethischen Fragen, die solche Ziele aufwerfen.

Today, mechanisms and mechanistic explanation are very popular in philosophy of science and are deemed a welcome alternative to laws of nature and deductive‐nomological explanation. Starting from Mitchell's pragmatic notion of laws, I cast doubt on their status as a genuine alternative. I argue that (1) all complex‐systems mechanisms ontologically must rely on stable regularities, while (2) the reverse need not hold. Analogously, (3) models of mechanisms must incorporate pragmatic laws, while (4) such laws themselves need not always refer to (...) underlying mechanisms. Finally, I show that Mitchell's account is more encompassing than the mechanistic account *Received August 2008; revised January 2010. †To contact the author, please write to: Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, B‐9000 Belgium; e‐mail: Bert[email protected]. (shrink)

4e de couv.: Les écrits de Michel Foucault sont stratifiés, hiérarchisés, entre les livres, les entretiens et les cours au Collège de France, mais ils sont surtout disséminés dans leurs usages. Désormais, et en plus de l'histoire des sciences et de la philosophie, les "effets" Foucault sont palpables sur la théorie de la littérature et du cinéma, l'histoire culturelle et sociale, les théories du genre, la pensée politique, les sciences de gestion, etc. C'est dans ce chantier ouvert que se situe (...) cet ouvrage. Il s'agit pour Jérôme Lamy, Jean-François Bert et leur équipe de spécialistes de resituer et d'analyser une pensée empruntant des questionnements à d'autres champs, de la psychologie à l'économie, de la science politique à la géographie, tout en ne se réclamant pas de ces sciences humaines et sociales. Pour comprendre la position de Foucault, les grands axes méthodologiques qu'il a parcourus sont retracés, telle l'archéologie, l'épistémè, la problématisation. Les concepts, des ouvrages maintenant classiques aux cours et à l'histoire de la sexualité, sont également revisités. Cette lecture critique des écrits et des usages de Foucault permet de le confronter aux analyses les plus récentes en sciences sociales, comme les postcolonial studies, ou de suivre les dialogues engagés (parfois à distance) avec des auteurs comme Norbert Elias, Michel de Certeau et Pierre Bourdieu. Un inventaire aussi rigoureux qu'éclairant. (shrink)

Many theories about human number representation stress the importance of a central semantic representation that includes the magnitude information of small integer numbers, and that is conceived as an abstract, compressed number line. However, thus far there has been little or no direct evidence that units and teens are represented on the same number line. In two masked priming experiments, we show that single-digit and two-digit Arabic numerals are equally well primed by an Arabic numeral with the same number of (...) digits as by an equally distant Arabic numeral with a different number of digits (e.g. the priming effect of 7 on the target 9 is the same as the priming effect of 11 on the target 9). The finding was obtained both with a number naming task and with a parity judgement task. This is in line with the hypothesis that units and teens are part of a continuous number line. (shrink)

We analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences. We look into the firm’s human rights policy, its governance of bribery and corruption, and the comprehensiveness, implementation and communication of its codes of ethics. We use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2,700 firms in 24 countries. We find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in (...) different countries. When we associate these ethical policies with Hofstede’s cultural indicators, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm’s ethical policies, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies. (shrink)

Commemorate[s] the centennial of the meeting of the Linnean Society, July 1, 1858, and the paper of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace which were read there.

Some common explanations of issue polarization and echo chambers rely on social or cognitive mechanisms of exclusion. Accordingly, suggested interventions like “be more open-minded” target these mechanisms: avoid epistemic bubbles and don’t discount contrary information. Contrary to such explanations, we show how a much weaker mechanism—the preference for belief—can produce issue polarization in epistemic communities with little to no mechanisms of exclusion. We present a network model that demonstrates how a dynamic interaction between the preference for belief and common structures (...) of epistemic communities can turn very small unequal distributions of initial beliefs into full-blown polarization. This points to a different class of explanations, one that emphasizes the importance of the initial spread of information. We also show how our model complements extant explanations by including a version of biased assimilation and motivated reasoning—cognitive mechanisms of exclusion. We find that mechanisms of exclusion can exacerbate issue polarization, but may not be the ultimate root of it. Hence, the recommended interventions suggested by extant literature is expected to be limited and the problem of issue polarization to be even more intractable. (shrink)

Ethicists differ considerably in their reasons for using empirical data. This paper presents a brief overview of four traditional approaches to the use of empirical data: “the prescriptive applied ethicists,” “the theorists,” “the critical applied ethicists,” and “the particularists.” The main aim of this paper is to introduce a fifth approach of more recent date (i.e. “integrated empirical ethics”) and to offer some methodological directives for research in integrated empirical ethics. All five approaches are presented in a table for heuristic (...) purposes. The table consists of eight columns: “view on distinction descriptive-prescriptive sciences,” “location of moral authority,” “central goal(s),” “types of normativity,” “use of empirical data,” “method,” “interaction empirical data and moral theory,” and “cooperation with descriptive sciences.” Ethicists can use the table in order to identify their own approach. Reflection on these issues prior to starting research in empirical ethics should lead to harmonization of the different scientific disciplines and effective planning of the final research design. Integrated empirical ethics (IEE) refers to studies in which ethicists and descriptive scientists cooperate together continuously and intensively. Both disciplines try to integrate moral theory and empirical data in order to reach a normative conclusion with respect to a specific social practice. IEE is not wholly prescriptive or wholly descriptive since IEE assumes an interdepence between facts and values and between the empirical and the normative. The paper ends with three suggestions for consideration on some of the future challenges of integrated empirical ethics. (shrink)

Finance is grease to the economy. Therefore, we assume that it may affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the sustainability of economic development too. This paper discusses the transmission mechanisms between finance and sustainability. We find that there is no simple one-to-one relationship between financial development and sustainable development but there are various – often indirect – linkages. It appears that most of the literature concentrates on the role of public shareholders when it comes to changing corporate policy and performance (...) in a more sustainable direction. However, this focus neglects the potential impact of the credit channel and private equity on a firm’s non-financial policies and performance. These very powerful mechanisms can govern business policies and practices. Therefore, there appears to be much more scope for finance to promote socially and environmentally desirable activities and to discourage detrimental activities than has been acknowledged in the academic literature so far. (shrink)

How do Dutch people let each other know that they disagree? What do they say when they want to resolve their difference of opinion by way of an argumentative discussion? In what way do they convey that they are convinced by each other’s argumentation? How do they criticize each other’s argumentative moves? Which words and expressions do they use in these endeavors? By answering these questions this short essay provides a brief inventory of the language of argumentation in Dutch.

The study of argumentation is prospering. After its brilliant start in Antiquity, highlighted in the classical works of Aristotle, after an alternation of ups and downs during the following millennia, in the post-Renaissance period its gradual decline set in. Revitalization took place only after Toulmin and Perelman published in the same year their landmark works The Uses of Argument and La nouvelle rhétorique. The model of argumentation presented by Toulmin and Perelman’s inventory of argumentation techniques inspired a great many scholars (...) in various ways to take up the study of argumentation in a serious manner. Nowadays there are well-established logical approaches to argumentation, but also social and socio-psychological, linguistic, juridical and other approaches. In most of these approaches traces can be found of the influence of the classical and neo-classical argumentation theories just mentioned. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 6, Page 62-64, June 2011.

This article aims at providing a framework to assess corporate social responsibility with international banks. Currently, it is mainly rating institutions like EIRIS and KLD that provide information about firms’ social conduct and performance. However, this is costly information and it is not clear how the rating institutions arrive at their conclusion. We develop a framework to assess the social responsibility of internationally operating banks. We apply this framework to more than 30 institutions and find significant differences among individual banks, (...) countries, and regions. Furthermore, it appears that social responsibility of these banks has significantly improved between 2000 and 2005. (shrink)