Moral Acquaintances and Moral Decisions (eBook)

Acknowledgement 6
Contents 7
1 Justifying Moral Claims in a Pluralistic Society 9
Moral Disagreement in a Secular, Pluralistic Society 11
Definitions 14
The Problems of Concern in This Work 16
Three Attempts to Resolve Moral Problems 16
Is There Any Solution? 22
2 Engelhardt and the Content-Free (?) Principle of Permission 23
''Content-Free'' Ethics 26
Conclusion-Free Ethics? Infants, Ownership, and Unconscious Persons 31
Case 2.1: Damned If You Do… 31
Case 2.2: Problems with Ownership 34
Social Personhood 41
Case 2.3: ''Semi-Persons''? 43
Engelhardt’s Principle of Intervention 47
The Limitations of Contracts 49
The Second ArgumentA More Minimal Ethical Grammar 54
Wanted: Moral Analysis 55
The Rejection of Force 58
The Argument from Intellectual Authority 59
Argument for Force 61
The Argument from Praise and Blame 63
The Principle of Reason-Giving 67
Back to Nihilism? 70
3 The Four-Principles Approach: An Appeal to the Common Morality for Resolution and Justification 72
Why These Principles? 75
Two Versions of the Common Morality 77
Conflict of Principles, Balancing, and Specification 81
Specification of Principles 83
The Objections of Clouser, Gert, and Green 84
Specification and Reflective Equilibrium as a Response 85
Specification as a Loose Requirement 89
A Further Difficulty 92
Specification and (Lack of) Universal Agreement 93
Differing Specifications in a Pluralistic Society 96
Justification of Actions on the Principles Approach 99
4 Casuistry in a Pluralistic Society 107
How Casuistry Works 108
Problems with Analogical Reasoning: Maxims and the Common Morality 109
The Existence of Commonly Held Paradigms and Their Limitations 115
Further Troubles: The Problem of Hidden Assumptions and Values 119
A Possible Response: Medicine Provides the Maxims 122
5 Moral Acquaintanceships as a Means of Conflict Resolution 129
The (Limited) Usefulness of Principle-Based Theory 131
Principle-Based Resolutions in Pluralistic Settings 133
Where Do We Go from Here? 133
Moral Friends and Moral Acquaintances 135
Some Examples 137
Three Non-rival Versions of Moral Acquaintanceships 139
Erich Loewy: Moral Strangers, Moral Acquaintances, and Moral Friends 139
Kevin Wm.Wildes, S.J.: Moral Acquaintances: Methodology in Bioethics 143
A Third Way: Specific Moral Acquaintances 146
Justification of the Decisions of Moral Acquaintances 146
Similarities Between Moral Friendships and Moral Acquaintanceships 147
The Separation of the Moral and the Social 147
Moral Choices in a Social Context 149
A Point About Moral Learning and Personal History 153
Moral Community, Moral Friendship, and Moral Acquaintance 154
A Challenge 157
Moral Acquaintanceships and the Mini-Culture of Medical Cases 161
Compatibility of the Versions 164
Conclusion 165
Bibliography 173
Index 178