Abstract
The subject of my paper are the methodological questions of applied ethics. In order to address this problem, we should clarify, in the first place, what it is that is called applied or practical ethics. The latter expression may appear a bit curious, indeed, for it might seem to suggest that there is an ethics which has nothing to do with practical matters. On the other hand, “applied ethics” may be taken to mean the same as “application of ethics”. In this case, the sense of the expression is rather clear; but it already involves a strong premise in that it says that ethical method consists in applying a previously given standpoint to concrete cases. There are, however, some positions which would reject this view (e.g. intuitionism or situation ethics), so that it would be question-begging to presuppose its truth at the very beginning.
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Notes
See James Rachels: “Introduction”, in: James Rachels (ed.): Moral Problems,New York: Harper and Row 1971, p.ix.
Similarly Kurt Bayertz: “Praktische Philosophie als angewandte Ethik”, in: Kurt Bayertz (ed.): Praktische Philosophie. Grundorientierungen angewandter Ethik, Reinbek: Rowohlt 1991, pp.7–47, especially pp.22f.
For this debate, see e.g. Don MacNiven: “The Idea of a Moral Expert”, in: Don MacNiven (ed.): Moral Expertise, London 1990, pp.1–10, or Peter Singer: “Ethical Experts in a Democracy”, in: David M. Rosenthal/Fadlou Shehadi (eds.): Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press 1988, pp. 149–161.
See, e.g., Peter Winch: “The Universalizability of Moral Judgment”, in: Peter Winch: Ethics and Action, London 1972, pp. 151–170.
Ursula Wolf: Das Tier in der Moral, Frankfurt: Klostermann 1990.
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Wolf, U. (1994). Applied Ethics, Applying Ethics and the Methods of Ethics. In: Pauer-Studer, H. (eds) Norms, Values, and Society. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2454-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2454-8_14
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