Abstract
This chapter discusses whether our moral decisions should be conceived as the mere application of abstract moral principles or rather as practical knowledge derived from our moral experience and grounded in the complexity of concrete situations in which principles are embedded. Appealing to Aristotle, this chapter argues that, although principles play a key role in our moral judgments, these latter cannot be reduced to the result of purely deductive reasoning, since they previously require another kind of rationality: instead of being purely deductive, our moral decisions appear to be the result of a combined inductive-deductive process. This claim is developed in two parts. The first part briefly presents some of the criticisms levelled in recent decades against purely deductive moral theories. The second part claims that an inductive-deductive model provides a more realistic account of how sound moral judgments are actually made. This discussion has direct relevance to medical ethics, especially in the context of the criticisms levelled against the principlist approach proposed by Beauchamp and Childress.
This article was first published as: Roberto Andorno, “Do Our Moral Judgments Need to Be Guided by Principles?”, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Volume 21(4), pp. 457–465 (2012), © Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In later editions of this work, the authors have made significant efforts to incorporate the criticisms to their principlist approach.
References
Andorno R (2011) Anti-theory. In: Chadwick R, ten Have H, Meslin E (eds) Sage handbook of health care ethics. Sage, London, pp 31–38
Anscombe E (1958) Modern moral philosophy. Philosophy 33:1–19. Reprinted in: crisp R, Slote M (eds.) Virtue ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 26–44
Aquinas T (1976) Quaestiones disputatae; De Veritate. In: Thomas Aquinas. Opera Omnia (Leonine edition), Vol 22. Editori di San Tommaso, Rome
Aristotle (1949) Posterior analytics (trans: Mure GRG). In: Ross WD (ed) Aristotle’s prior and posterior analytics. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Aristotle (1975) On the soul (trans: Hett WS). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Aristotle (1982) Nicomachean ethics (transl: Rackham H). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Beauchamp TL (2003) A defense of the common morality. Kennedy Inst Ethics J 13(3):259–274
Beauchamp TL (2010) Universal principles and universal rights. In: den Exter A (ed) Biomedicine and human rights. Makku, Antwerpen, pp 49–66
Beauchamp TL, Childress JF (1989) Principles of biomedical ethics, 3rd edn. Oxford University Press, New York
Beiner R (1999) Do we need a philosophical ethics? In: Bartlett R, Collins S (eds) Action and contemplation. Studies in the moral and philosophical thought of Aristotle. State University of New York Press, New York, pp 37–52
Chekhov A (1996) Selected stories. Wordsworth, Hertfordshire
Clouser KD, Gert B (1990) A critique of principalism. J Med Phil 15:219–236
Dancy J (2004) Ethics without principles. Oxford University Press, New York
Dworkin G (2006) Theory and practice of moral reasoning. In: Copp D (ed) The Oxford handbook of ethical theory. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 624–644
Gauch H (2004) Scientific method in practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Groarke L (2009) An Aristotelian account of induction: creating something from nothing. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal
Hare RM (1961) The language of morals. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Jonsen A, Toulmin S (1988) The abuse of casuistry. A history of moral reasoning. University of California Press, Berkeley
Locke J (1995) An essay concerning human understanding. Book II. Prometheus Books, New York
Louden R (1992) Morality and moral theory: a reappraisal and reaffirmation. Oxford University Press, New York
MacIntyre A (1984) After virtue. A study in moral theory, 2nd edn. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame
MacIntyre A (1998) First principles, final ends and contemporary philosophical issues. In: Knight K (ed) The MacIntyre reader. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame
Maxwell B, Racine E (2010) Should empathic development be a priority in biomedical ethics teaching? A critical perspective. Camb Q Healthc Ethics 19(4):433–445
Molewijk B, van Zadelhoff E, Lendemeijer B et al (2008) Implementing moral case deliberation in Dutch health care; improving moral competency of professionals and the quality of care. Bioethica forum. Swiss J Biomed Ethics 1(1):57–65
Musschenga A (2005) Empirical ethics, context-sensitivity and contextualism. J Med Phil 30(5):467–490
Nussbaum M (2009) Bernard Williams: tragedies, hope, justice. In: Calcut D (ed) Reading Bernard Williams. Routledge, New York
Pellegrino E (1993) The metamorphosis of medical ethics: a 30 years perspective. JAMA 269:1158–1162
Saunders B (2010) How to teach moral theories in applied ethics. J Med Ethics 36(10):635–638
Smith R (2010) Aristotle’s logic. In: Zalta EN (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-logic/. Accessed 14 Dec 2010
Steinkamp N, Gordijn B (2003) Ethical case deliberation on the ward. A comparison of four methods. Med Health Care Philos 6(3):235–246
Stocker M (1976) The schizophrenia of modern ethical theory. J Phil 73(14):453–466. Reprinted in: Crisp R, Slote M (eds) virtue ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 66–78
Ten Have H (1994) The hyperreality of clinical ethics: a unitary theory and hermeneutics. Theor Med 15:113–131
Welch J (2001) Cleansing the doors of perception: Aristotle on induction. In: Boudouris K (ed) Greek Philosophy and Epistemology, vol. II. International Association for Greek Philosophy, Athens, pp 204–213
Widdershoven G, Abma T (2007) Hermeneutic ethics between practice and theory. In: Ashcroft R, Dawson A, Draper H (eds) Principles of health care ethics. Wiley, Chichester, pp 215–221
Williams B (1985) Ethics and the limits of philosophy. Fontana Press, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Andorno, R. (2018). Chapter 2 Do Our Moral Judgements Need to Be Guided by Principles?. In: Soniewicka, M. (eds) The Ethics of Reproductive Genetics. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 128. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60684-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60684-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60683-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60684-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)