Abstract
Human ethical activity is complex and multi-faceted. It includes deciding and acting, reflection and contemplation, sustaining habits over time, nurturing character, and many other kinds of activity. It is part logic, part acts of will, part turning of emotional sensibilities, part feats of imagination. Because ethics embraces such diverse kinds of activity, ethical theories need to be diverse and multi-faceted as well. Yet this is frequently not the case. Many contemporary theories focus exclusively on rules and principles calculated to serve as action guides in an explicit decisional process. Theological traditions of ethics usually expand this to include the virtues, and an emphasis on the non-decisional aspects of moral character. Still we believe theoretical enrichment is essential to be true to the vast scope of activity we routinely designate as ethics.
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Churchill, S.W., Churchill, L.R. (1994). Reason, Narrative and Rhetoric: A Theoretical Collage for the Clinical Encounter. In: McKenny, G.P., Sande, J.R. (eds) Theological Analyses of the Clinical Encounter. Theology and Medicine, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8386-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8386-2_9
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