Re-Reasoning Ethics: The Rationality of Deliberation and Judgment in Ethics

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Barry Hoffmaster (Professor, University of Western Ontario) Cliff Hooker (Conjoint Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

Re-Reasoning Ethics

The Rationality of Deliberation and Judgment in Ethics

Barry Hoffmaster (Professor, University of Western Ontario), Cliff Hooker (Conjoint Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

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English

MIT Press
31 October 2023

Ethics & moral philosophy; Ethical issues & debates

Series: Basic Bioethics

How developing a more expansive, non-formal conception of reason produces richer ethical understandings of human situations, explored and illustrated with many real examples.

How developing a more expansive, non-formal conception of reason produces richer ethical understandings of human situations, explored and illustrated with many real examples.

In Re-Reasoning Ethics, Barry Hoffmaster and Cliff Hooker enhance and empower ethics by adopting a non-formal paradigm of rational deliberation as intelligent problem-solving and a complementary non-formal paradigm of ethical deliberation as problem-solving design to promote human flourishing. The non-formal conception of reason produces broader and richer ethical understandings of human situations, not the simple, constrained depictions provided by moral theories and their logical applications in medical ethics and bioethics. Instead, it delivers and vindicates the moral judgment that complex, contextual, and dynamic situations require.

Hoffmaster and Hooker demonstrate how this more expansive rationality operates with examples, first in science and then in ethics. Non-formal reason brings rationality not just to the empirical world of science but also to the empirical realities of human lives. Among the many real cases they present is that of how women at risk of having children with genetic conditions decide whether to try to become pregnant. These women do not apply the formal principle of maximizing expected utility (as advised by genetic counselors) and instead imagine scenarios of what their lives could be like with an affected child and assess whether they could accept the worst of these scenarios.

Hoffmaster and Hooker explain how moral compromise and a liberated, extended, and enriched reflective equilibrium expand and augment rational ethical deliberation and how that deliberation can rationally design ethical practices, institutions, and policies.

By: Barry Hoffmaster (Professor University of Western Ontario), Cliff Hooker (Conjoint Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262549752
ISBN 10: 0262549751
Series: Basic Bioethics
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 31 October 2023
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Barry Hoffmaster, a bioethicist, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. Cliff Hooker, a philosopher of science, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Newcastle, Australia.