The methods of bioethics : an essay in meta-bioethics / John McMillan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMillan, John, 1968- author.

Contributor:

Rev. C. P. Krauth Fund.

Series:

Issues in biomedical ethics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bioethics.

Physical Description:

x, 186 pages ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

This is the first book in bioethics that explains how it is that you actually go about doing good bioethics. Bioethics has made a mistake about its methods, and this has led not only to too much theorizing, but also fragmentation within bioethics. The unhelpful disputes between those who think bioethics needs to be more philosophical, more sociological, more clinical, or more empirical, continue. While each of these claims will have some point, they obscure what should be common to all instances of bioethics. Moreover, they provide another phantom that can lead newcomers to bioethics down blind alleyways stalked by bristling sociologists and philosophers. The method common to all bioethics is bringing moral reason to bear upon ethical issues, and it is more accurate and productive to clarify what this involves than to stake out a methodological patch that shows why one discipline is the most important. This book develops an account of the nature of bioethics and then explains how a number of methodological spectres have obstructed bioethics becoming what it should. In the final part, it explains how moral reason can be brought to bear upon practical issues via an 'empirical, Socratic' approach.

Contents:

1 How to Find Your Footing in Bioethics p. 1

Part I Bioethics

2 What Is Bioethics? p. 7

The Origins of Bioethics p. 7

My Definition of Bioethics and What It Needs to Do p. 10

The Essence of Bioethics p. 11

Battin's Trichotomy and Clinical Consultation p. 11

Bioethics and Public Policy p. 13

Scholarly Bioethics p. 15

Moral Reason p. 16

Medical Ethics versus Bioethics p. 17

Bioethics as Distinct from Applied Ethics p. 19

Philosophical Bioethics p. 19

Empirical Bioethics p. 21

Philosophical Bioethics versus Missionary Bioethics p. 21

Ethics as Distinct from Law p. 23

3 'Good' Bioethics p. 28

No Special Pleading p. 30

The Strength of 'No Special Pleading' p. 32

Engagement with Experience p. 35

Good Bioethics Always Involves Sound Reason p. 40

Part II The Spectres of Bioethics

4 Four Spectres of Bioethics p. 47

The Moral Mantra Mistake and the Tedious Theory Tendency p. 47

Four Principles and the Search for Theory p. 49

The Ethics Sausage Machine p. 53

Other Ethics Sausage Makers p. 62

Philosopher Kings and Other Queens of the Sciences p. 63

The Snooty Specialist Spectre p. 64

Other Queens of the Sciences p. 66

Sociology 'of' Bioethics p. 67

5 The Fact/Value Spectre p. 71

Putnam and the Fact/Value Distinction p. 74

If Not Empirical, Then Nonsense or Subjective (Positivism) p. 76

Bioethics Research Positivism p. 78

Evidence Based Medicine p. 79

Values Based Medicine p. 80

Part III The Methods of Bioethics

6 Empirical, Socratic Bioethics p. 87

Philosophical Forefathers p. 91

Socratic Reasoning: Speculative Reason and Drawing Distinctions p. 92

Bioethics Should Be Rigorous and Systematic p. 93

Empirical and Socratic p. 94

Non-invasive Prenatal Testing p. 95

Anencephalic Babies and the Dead-Donor Rule p. 96

Epistemic Humility and Philosophy p. 104

Epistemic Humility and Moral Theory p. 105

Epistemic Humility and the Additional Complications of Bioethics p. 106

A Kantian Argument for Why Bioethics Must Involve Concepts and the Empirical p. 108

7 What Is an Ethical Argument? p. 113

Building a Case p. 117

Picking an Ethical Question or Claim p. 117

Constructing a Syllogism p. 119

Think Creatively About All of the Issues That Might Be Relevant to That Question p. 119

Think About Which Parts of the Argument Are Easy or Hard p. 120

Questioning and Examining Factual Claims p. 120

Minimize Your Theoretical Assumptions p. 122

Freedom and Harm-Based Arguments p. 125

8 Speculative Argument and Bioethics p. 128

Speculative Practical Reason p. 129

Speculative Reason: The Counterexample p. 130

Speculative Reason: The Argument by Analogy p. 133

Speculative Reason: Deepening Moral Understanding p. 138

Speculative Reason: Intuition Pumps p. 140

Speculative Reason: The Heuristic Device p. 145

9 Drawing Distinctions: Defining, Reclaiming, and Analysing Moral Concepts p. 149

Drawing Programmatic Distinctions p. 150

Drawing Distinctions That Mark Important Moral Differences p. 154

Clarifying the Implications of a Concept p. 156

Reclaiming Moral Concepts p. 159

Clarifying Concepts p. 161

10 Drawing Distinctions: Novel, Sublime, and Slippery Moral Concepts p. 169

Introducing Moral Concepts p. 169

Transcendental Distinctions p. 174

Slippery-Slope Arguments p. 176

11 What It Is to Reason about Ethics p. 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rev. C. P. Krauth Fund.

ISBN:

9780199603756

0199603758

OCLC:

1079824168

Publisher Number:

99979453459