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  1.  53
    The Is - Ought Problem in Practical Ethics.Georg Spielthenner - 2017 - HEC Forum 29 (4):277-292.
    This article is concerned with the role empirical research can play in normative practical ethics. There is no doubt that ethical research requires some kind of collaboration between normative disciplines and empirical sciences. But many researchers hold that empirical science is only assigned a subordinate role, due to the doctrine that normative conclusions cannot be justified by descriptive premises. Scientists working in the field of ethics commonly hold, however, that the empirical sciences should play a much bigger role in ethical (...)
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  2. Analogical Reasoning in Ethics.Georg Spielthenner - 2014 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (5):861-874.
    In this article I am concerned with analogical reasoning in ethics. There is no doubt that the use of analogy can be a powerful tool in our ethical reasoning. The importance of this mode of reasoning is therefore commonly accepted, but there is considerable debate concerning how its structure should be understood and how it should be assessed, both logically and epistemically. In this paper, I first explain the basic structure of arguments from analogy in ethics. I then discuss the (...)
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  3.  44
    Why comply with a code of ethics?Georg Spielthenner - 2015 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 18 (2):195-202.
    A growing number of professional associations and occupational groups are creating codes of ethics with the goal of guiding their members, protecting service users, and safeguarding the reputation of the profession. There is a great deal of literature dealing with the question to what extent ethical codes can achieve their desired objectives. The present paper does not contribute to this debate. Its aim is rather to investigate how rational it is to comply with codes of conduct. It is natural and (...)
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  4.  43
    Justificatory Reasons for Action.Georg Spielthenner - 2012 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 8 (2):56-72.
  5.  50
    A Logical Analysis of Slippery Slope Arguments.Georg Spielthenner - 2010 - Health Care Analysis 18 (2):148-163.
    This article offers a logical analysis of Slippery Slope Arguments. Such arguments claim that adopting a certain act or policy would take us down a slippery slope to an undesirable bottom and infer from this that we should refrain from this act or policy. Even though a logical assessment of such arguments has not received much careful attention, it is of vital importance to their overall assessment because if the premises fail to support the conclusion an argument is worthless. I (...)
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  6. A logic of practical reasoning.Georg Spielthenner - 2007 - Acta Analytica 22 (2):139-153.
    In this paper my primary aim is to present a logical system of practical reasoning that can be used to assess the validity of practical arguments, that is, arguments with a practical judgment as conclusion. I begin with a critical evaluation of other approaches to this issue and argue that they are inadequate. On the basis of these considerations, I explain in Sect. 2 the informal conception of practical validity and introduce in Sect. 3 the logical system P , which (...)
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  7.  41
    The casuistic method of practical ethics.Georg Spielthenner - 2016 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 37 (5):417-431.
    This essay concerns itself with the methodology of practical ethics. There are a variety of methods employed in ethics. Although none have been firmly established as dominant, it is generally agreed that casuistry, or the case-based method, is one important strategy commonly used for resolving ethical issues. Casuists compare the case under consideration to a relevantly similar precedent case in which judgements have already been made, and they use these earlier judgements to determine the proper resolution of the present case. (...)
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  8. Consequentialism or deontology?Georg Spielthenner - 2005 - Philosophia 33 (1-4):217-235.
  9.  39
    The Principle-Based Method of Practical Ethics.Georg Spielthenner - 2017 - Health Care Analysis 25 (3):275-289.
    This paper is about the methodology of doing practical ethics. There is a variety of methods employed in ethics. One of them is the principle-based approach, which has an established place in ethical reasoning. In everyday life, we often judge the rightness and wrongness of actions by their conformity to principles, and the appeal to principles plays a significant role in practical ethics, too. In this paper, I try to provide a better understanding of the nature of principle-based reasoning. To (...)
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  10.  49
    The principle of double effect as a guide for medical decision-making.Georg Spielthenner - 2008 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 11 (4):465-473.
    Many medical interventions have both negative and positive effects. When health care professionals cannot achieve a particular desired good result without bringing about some bad effects also they often rely on double-effect reasoning to justify their decisions. The principle of double effect is therefore an important guide for ethical decision-making in medicine. At the same time, however, it is a very controversial tool for resolving complex ethical problems that has been criticized by many authors. For these reasons, I examine in (...)
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  11. Instrumental Reasoning Reconsidered.Georg Spielthenner - 2008 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 4 (1):59-76.
    Since Aristotle it has been common among philosophers to distinguish between two fundamental types of reasoning, theoretical and practical. We do not only want to work out what is the case but also what we ought to do. This article offers a logical analysis of instrumental reasoning, which is the paradigm of practical reasoning. In the first section I discuss the major types of instrumental reasoning and show why the accounts of most authors are defective. On the basis of this (...)
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  12.  23
    Moral virtues.Georg Spielthenner - 2004 - Ethic@: An International Journal for Moral Philosophy 3 (1):27–35.
    Although much has been published on virtues in recent years, there is still considerable uncertainty in philosophy (and even more among philosophical laymen) about the concept of a virtue and especially about moral virtues. In this article, I will try to clarify these notions. In particular, I want to answer the question: When are virtues moral virtues? Clearly, not every practical virtue is a moral virtue. Why was the courage of the Nazi soldiers in the second world war not a (...)
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  13.  2
    Grundlagen der Ethik.Georg Spielthenner - 2003 - Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
    Obwohl moralische Fragen in unserer Zeit von zentraler Bedeutung sind, haben nicht nur philosophische Laien, sondern selbst professionelle Philosophen oft nur sehr unklare Vorstellungen vom Wesen der Moral und von anderen Grundbegriffen der ethischen Forschung. Es ist daher angebracht, sich wieder diesen grundlegenden Begriffen zu widmen. Dieses Buch befasst sich im ersten Teil mit dem Begriff des Wertens im Allgemeinen sowie mit Werturteilen und ihrer Begründung. Der zweite Teil untersucht das Wesen der Moral, Moralurteile und ihre Begründung sowie weitere Grundbegriffe (...)
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  14. Justifying Practical Reasons.Georg Spielthenner - 2016 - Abstracta 9 (1).
    : This paper is about the nature of practical reasons. More specifically, my primary goal is to explore when an agent has a justifying reason for action¾that is, a reason that can be used for justifying an action that has been done or that the agent is planning to do. This concept of reason is central to ethics and to practical philosophy in general. I defend an account of reason according to which a piece of practical reasoning gives an agent (...)
     
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  15.  64
    Lesser Evil Reasoning and its Pitfalls.Georg Spielthenner - 2010 - Argumentation 24 (2):139-152.
    We are often faced with dilemmatic situations in which we must choose between alternative courses of action, both of which will have a bad outcome. It is commonly held that in such cases it is both uncontroversial and unproblematic that we have to choose the lesser evil. However, despite its frequent application in ethical decision-making, lesser evil reasoning is not well understood by most of its advocates and it thus occasions much misunderstanding and it presents a number of pitfalls. In (...)
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  16. Logical Varieties of Instrumental Reasons.Georg Spielthenner - 2012 - Etica E Politica 14 (2):197-213.
    Instrumental reasons play a central role in our practical deliberations because we apply the distinction between reasonable and unreasonable not only to beliefs, but to actions also. The question of what one has an instrumental reason to do is an important substantive question that is relevant to the general theory of practical reasoning and to ethics, too. It will be my object in the present study to show that we have different kinds of instrumental reasons, which depend solely on their (...)
     
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  17.  36
    Moral Emotions.Georg Spielthenner - 2004 - Disputatio 1 (17):1 - 13.
    Moral emotions have been badly neglected by philosophical ethics. In my view to the detriment of this discipline because they are not only important for the moral evaluation of persons but also for value theory and thus also for a theory of morally right actions. This paper outlines my account of moral emotions. Emotions such as regret or shame are sometimes but not always moral emotions. I will determine when they are moral emotions. In I will deal with the views (...)
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  18. Moral Reasons.Georg Spielthenner - 2007 - Etica E Politica 9 (2):423-437.
    My primary aim in this essay is to clarify the notion of a moral reason. To accomplish this, I criticise in the first section the main conceptions of moral reasons. In the second and third section, I explain my account of moral reasons, arguing that moral reasons are a kind of social reasons, and illustrate it by examples. Although the concept of a moral reason is central to our moral thinking; it has received scant attention in the philosophical literature. Furthermore, (...)
     
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  19.  78
    On Normative Practical Reasoning.Georg Spielthenner - 2013 - Abstracta 7 (1).
    This article offers an analysis of normative practical reasoning. Reasoning of this type includes at least one normative belief and it has a practical conclusion (roughly, a conclusion about what to do). The principal question I am interested in is whether this type of practical reasoning can be logically conclusive. This issue has received remarkably little philosophical discussion despite the central role this reasoning plays in our everyday discourse about action and in the resolution of ethical problems. I distinguish three (...)
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  20. On Practical Reasoning under Ignorance.Georg Spielthenner - 2013 - Croatian Journal of Philosophy 13 (3):357-373.
    The purpose of this paper is to present an account of practical reasoning under ignorance—i.e., reasoning under conditions where the available information is so uninformative that we cannot assign probabilities to the outcomes of our options. The account shows that such reasoning need not rely on implausible principles , but can nevertheless be logically valid. Put differently, I attempt to show that we can reason in a logically correct manner even if we do not know what the outcomes of our (...)
     
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  21.  13
    Rational valuations.Georg Spielthenner - 2007 - Ethic@ - An International Journal for Moral Philosophy 6 (1):41–55.
    Valuations are ubiquitous. We may be for or against genetically modified food; we find some politicians irresponsible; we prefer Beethoven to rock ‘n’ roll or vice versa; some enjoy bird-watching while others find it boring; and we may think that we have to tighten up on green-house gas emissions. Valuing is pervasive and often we are not even aware that we are valuing. However, many of our valuations are ill grounded and rationally defective. They are frequently based on misinformation, sloppy (...)
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  22.  37
    The Role of Formal Justice in Ethical Reasoning.Georg Spielthenner - 2015 - Res Publica 21 (1):77-92.
    In this article I am concerned with reasoning about matters of justice. There is no doubt that justice-reasoning is a significant mode of ethical reasoning and its importance is therefore generally accepted. But there is a considerable debate concerning the role formal justice can play in reasoning about justice. In this paper, I first provide an analysis of formal justice. I then show that the concept of formal justice is identical to one notion of fairness and I illustrate the function (...)
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  23.  20
    Virtue-based Approaches to Professional Ethics: a Plea for More Rigorous Use of Empirical Science.Georg Spielthenner - 2017 - Ethic@ - An International Journal for Moral Philosophy 16 (1):15-34.
    Until recently, the method of professional ethics has been largely principle-based. But the failure of this approach to take into sufficient account the character of professionals has led to a revival of virtue ethics. The kind of professional virtue ethics that I am concerned with in this paper is teleological in that it relates the virtues of a profession to the ends of this profession. My aim is to show how empirical research can be used to develop virtue-based accounts of (...)
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  24. What is a Value Judgement?Georg Spielthenner - 2005 - Sorites 16:82-92.
    The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of a value judgement. I present here my view on this problem, which is a version of non-descriptivism that is similar to but not identical to traditional non-descriptivist theories. The thesis I want to explain and argue for is that S makes a value judgement about x if and only if S expresses his attitude towards x. I explain first explain this thesis by clarifying the concept of an attitude, in (...)
     
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  25.  66
    Risk-Benefit Analysis: From a Logical Point of View. [REVIEW]Georg Spielthenner - 2012 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 9 (2):161-170.
    In this paper I am concerned with risk–benefit analysis; that is, the comparison of the risks of a situation to its related benefits. We all face such situations in our daily lives and they are very common in medicine too, where risk–benefit analysis has become an important tool for rational decision-making. This paper explores risk–benefit analysis from a logical point of view. In particular, it seeks a better understanding of the common view that decisions should be made by weighing risks (...)
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