Good Ethics Can Sometimes Mean Better Science: Research Ethics and the Milgram Experiments

All agree that if the Milgram experiments were proposed today they would never receive approval from a research ethics board. However, the results of the Milgram experiments are widely cited across a broad range of academic literature from psychology to moral philosophy. While interpretations of the experiments vary, few commentators, especially philosophers, have expressed doubts about the basic soundness of the results. What I argue in this paper is that this general approach to the experiments might be in error. I will show that the ethical problems that would prevent the experiments from being approved today actually have an effect on the results such that the experiments might show less than many currently suppose. Making this case demonstrates two conclusions. The first is that there are good reasons to think that the conclusions of many of Milgram’s commentators might be too strong. The second conclusion is a more general one. The ethics procedures commonly used by North American research ethics boards serve not only to protect human participants in research but also can sometimes help secure, to an extent, the integrity of results. In other words, good ethics can sometimes mean better science.

A Moderate Defence of the Use of Thought Experiments in Applied Ethics

Thought experiments have played a pivotal role in many debates within ethics—and in particular within applied ethics—over the past 30 years. Nonetheless, despite their having become a commonly used philosophical tool, there is something odd about the extensive reliance upon thought experiments in areas of philosophy, such as applied ethics, that are so obviously oriented towards practical life. Herein I provide a moderate defence of their use in applied philosophy against those three objections. I do not defend all possible uses of thought experiments but suggest that we should distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate uses. Their legitimate uses are determined not so much by the modal content of any actual thought experiment itself, but by the extent to which the argument in which it is nested follows basic tenets of informal logic and respects the fundamental contingency of applied ethical problems. In pursuing these ideas, I do not so much provide a set of criteria for their legitimate use, but more modestly present two significant ways in which their use can go awry.     

Polish Research Ethics Committees in the European Union System of Assessing Medical Experiments

The Polish equivalents of Research Ethics Committees are Bioethics Committees (BCs). A questionnaire study has been undertaken to determine their situation. The BC is usually comprised of 13 members. Nine of these are doctors and four are non-doctors. In 2006 BCs assessed an average of 27.3 ± 31.7 (range: 0–131) projects of clinical trials and 71.1 ± 139.8 (range: 0–638) projects of other types of medical research. During one BC meeting an average of 10.3 ± 14.7 (range: 0–71) projects of medical research were assessed (2006). The amendment of Polish laws according with Directive 2001/20/EC caused a percentage increase in BCs which assessed less than 20 projects per year (16% vs. 33% or 42% in 2003 vs. 2005 or 2006 respectively, p < 0,05). The results confirm the usefulness of the current practice of creating BCs by medical universities, medical institutes and regional chambers of physicians and dentists but rationalization of the workload for individual BCs is necessary.

Virtue Ethics and Confucian Ethics

This essay focuses on the unity of several virtues in pre-Qin Confucians. Confucius maintains the proper application and coherence of such virtues as benevolence, wisdom, trustworthiness, straightforwardness, courage, and firmness. Further, Confucius takes benevolence and nobility as characteristic of human being. Particular attention is paid to the distinction and relationship between virtuous characters and virtuous actions.     

Feminist Ethics and Religious Ethics

This focus issue is a conversation at and about the interface of feminist ethics and religious ethics, in order to show what these multifaceted fields of intellectual endeavor and practical import have to say to each other, to teach and to learn. The seven essays approach that dialogue from a variety of angles and traditions, reflecting the fecundity of both fields and the wide‐ranging concerns of colleagues in religious ethics who share commitments and methods with feminist ethics.     

语言伦理与媒体伦理

语言与媒体的联系表明语言伦理与媒体伦理具有内在联系;语言与媒体的差异表明语言伦理与媒体伦理之间又存在着巨大区别,从而使得前者构成了自然语言的伦理问题,后者构成了媒体语言的伦理问题。不要说谎(即说真话)既是自然语言伦理也是媒体语言伦理的基本要求,但是,由于媒体语言与自然语言的不对称,以及媒体语言已经成为公共领域的主导语言,所以,媒体语言之不要说谎的重要性远非自然语言不要说谎的重要性所能比拟。应用伦理学应该通过政府主管部门、媒体自律协会和全体社会公众三条监督途径,来解决媒体伦理问题,确保媒体遵循不要说谎的基本道德要求。其中,利用现代网络技术把自然语言提升为媒体语言,完善全体社会公众的监督途径尤为重要。     

Between Christian Ethics and Religious Ethics

By focusing on questions concerning what kind of training graduate students in theology and ethics and religious ethics should receive, I try to initiate a conversation we need to have about the kind of work the JRE should foster.     

Christian Ethics,Religious Ethics,and Secular Ethics: A Contemporary Reappraisal

In this essay, I argue that Christian ethicists should not think of themselves as religious ethicists. I defend this claim by arguing that the concept of religious ethics, as it has come to be understood as a discipline that is distinct from secular ethics, is incoherent. In part one, I describe the fraught attempts by theologians in the 20th century to identify the distinctiveness of Christian ethics. In part two, I argue that certain accounts of natural law unwittingly reinforce a problematic conception of secular ethics. Part three examines some trends in religious studies and comparative religious ethics to highlight problematic conceptions of religion. Drawing together these strands of inquiry, I contend that that the secular-religious dichotomy in contemporary ethics should be rejected, but by the same token, I suggest that comparative ethics remains a worthwhile enterprise.     

Ethics and Imagination

Cognitive semantics has made important empirical findings about human conceptualization. In this paper some findings concerning moral concepts are analyzed and their implications for medical ethics discussed. The key idea is that morality has to do with metaphors and imagination rather than with well-defined concepts and deduction. It is argued that normative medical ethics to be psychologically realistic should take these findings seriously. This means that an imaginative casuistry is to be preferred compared to principlism and to other forms of casuistry. Furthermore, the metaphorical character of central principles in medical ethics such as autonomy, utility, justice, and integrity is indicated. Such principles are interpreted as rules of thumb summarizing the collective wisdom concerning prototype cases.     

Ethics and Sex

Book Information Ethics and Sex. By Igor Primoratz. Routledge. London/New York. 1999. Pp. xi + 205. Paperback, £14.99.     

Ecclesiology and Ethics

The author elaborates on the relation between tradition and the concept of 'invention' within doctrinal theory. Based on examinations of how this is reflected upon in selected doctrinal theories (Alister E. McGrath, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Oswald Bayer), the author discusses 'invention' in relation to adjacent theological issues. Diverging issues seem to be whether invention should be reserved for the object of theology (Bayer), or whether invention should be the task of systematic theology, especially in relation to the constant generation of new experiences (McGrath and Pannenberg). The author also asserts that the doctrinal theory of Bayer is inventive, even though not intended to be so. Thus, the question is how to work inventively within systematic theology, not whether to do so.     

论现代医学视野中的伦理与现代伦理视野中的医学

医学与伦理的关系从古代、近代到现代,经过了一个浑然一体、相互分离和重新融合的否定之否定过程。通过对这一过程的简要考察和分析,着重阐述了现代医学视野中的伦理与现代伦理视野中的医学应当所具有的本质形相。在现代医学视野中,现代医学伦理是来自人类伦理遗产和对现实生命道德问题的伦理认识结果两方面的理论交汇。现代伦理应当是多层次的理论与实践系统,其中包括道德哲学层次的思考;生命伦理中的道德原则和规范的构建;关于生命道德规范长入现代医学的机制问题的思考;现代医学伦理的发展与相关学科的相互借鉴的研究。在现代伦理的视野中,现代医学的本质在于,现代“大医学”的概念已经取代了对医学的传统认识;医学作为现代社会文化构成部分的特质逐渐地被揭示出来;现代医学已经成为特定社会职业群体以科学技术为主体的重要社会活动。站在现代医学和现代伦理各自的立场认识和了解对方,对全面把握二者之间的关系和推进二者之间的有机结合具有重要意义。