A defense of the common morality

Phenomena of moral conflict and disagreement have led writers in ethics to two antithetical conclusions: Either valid moral distinctions hold universally or they hold relative to a particular and contingent moral framework, and so cannot be applied with universal validly. Responding to three articles in this issue of the Journal that criticize his previously published views on the common morality, the author maintains that one can consistently deny universality to some justified moral norms and claim universality for others. Universality is located on the common morality and nonuniversality in other parts of the moral life, called "particular moralities." The existence of universal moral standards is defended in terms of: (1) a theory of the objectives of morality, (2) an account of the norms that achieve those objectives, and (3) an account of normative justification (both pragmatic and coherentist).     

关于城市伦理的几个问题

城市伦理研究城市社会的道德问题。城市伦理研究所运用的是结构—功能分析、城市和乡村社会结构的比较、辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义等方法。环境的高度人工化、社会交往和联系的普遍性、职业分工的扩张趋势、价值主体的多元化构成了城市社会的道德机制。由此形成了城市道德的基本特征 :道德形成的共识性、价值的终极指向性、职业道德的社会化、功能上的整合性、适用的普世性、内容上的开放性。传统道德对当代城市道德既有消极阻碍的作用又有积极的构成作用。     

The plurality of Chinese and American medical moralities: toward an interpretive cross-cultural bioethics

Since the late 1970s, American appraisals of Chinese medical ethics and Chinese responses to American bioethics range from frank criticism to warm appreciation, from refutation to acceptance. Yet in the United States as well as in China, American bioethics and Chinese medical ethics have been seen, respectively, as individualistic and communitarian. In this widely-accepted general comparison, the great variation in the two medical moralities, especially the diversity of Chinese experiences, has been unfortunately minimized, if not totally ignored. Neither American bioethics nor Chinese medical ethics is a field with only one dominant way of thinking. Medical moralities in America and China -- traditional and modern -- have always been plural and diverse. For example, American and Chinese cultures and medical moralities both exhibit individualistic and communitarian traditions. For this reason, bioethics in general and cross-cultural bioethics in particular must be fundamentally interpretive. Interpretive cross-cultural bioethics appreciates the plurality of medical morality within any culture. It can serve as a vital means of social and cultural criticism through engaged interpretations.     

The common morality in communitarian thought: reflective consensus in public policy

I explore the possible meanings that the notion of the common morality can have in a contemporary communitarian approach to ethics and public policy. The common morality can be defined as the conditions for shared pursuit of the good or as the values, deliberations, traditions, and common construction of the narrative of a people. The former sense sees the common morality as the universal and invariant structures of morality while the second sense is much more contingent in nature. Nevertheless, the communitarian sees both aspects as integral in devising solutions to public policy problems. I outline how both meanings follow from communitarian philosophical anthropology and illustrate how they work together when addressing a question such as that of providing universal health insurance in the United States. The common morality forms the basis of building an implicit consensus that is available to and reaffirmed by the shared reflections of the citizenry.     

道德、宗教和文化的完整性:对跨文化伦理学及公共政策论的意义

分析传统对宗教与道德之间关系的两种模式（A）与（B）都是过分偏激容易引起误解。它们所代表的观点亦不容易在实践中可以持续。（A）模式坚持道德必须直接地依赖宗教作为它的惟一来源。（B）模式则认为道德应完全独立于宗教。然而,欧洲启蒙运动所追求的一种具普遍性和独立于宗教的理性伦却明显已经“破产”。因为并没有任何一个群体能够完全摆脱它自身拥有的历史、文化与宗教遗产。提出一个辩证法的模式,即认为宗教与文化应有一个相互依赖、相互诠释的关系,一个群体／社会的文化完整性才得以保存。这模式对跨文化伦理对话以及公共政策的讨论都具有相当的意义。     

进化伦理学及其向西方传统伦理学的挑战

在“进化伦理学”这个名称下,容纳了形形色色的具体构想。但是,各种进化伦理学纲领都以进化论来理解和把握人类道德现象。广义进化伦理学就是道德进化论。它侧重于对道德现象进行描述和说明（解释）,但也试图对已有的道德规范体系进行评价,并在评价的基础上对已有的道德规范进行限定或修正,因而并未完全丧失规范伦理学的性质。进化伦理学对西方传统伦理学的基础、学科性质和若干核心伦理观念提出了尖锐的挑战。     

A Synthetic Approach to Bioethical Inquiry

This paper attempts to sort out some of the current tensions and ambiguities inherent in the field of bioethics as it continues to mature. In particular it focuses on the question of the methodological relevance of theory or ethical principles to the domain of clinical ethics. I offer an approach to reasoning about moral conflict that combines the insights of contemporary moral theorists, the philosophy of American pragmatism, and the skills of rhetorical deliberation. This synthetic approach locates a proper role for moral theory in the practice of clinical ethics, thus linking abstract philosophical ideas about morality, humanity, suffering, and health to specific deeds, actions, and decisions in the concrete lives of particular individuals. The aim of this synthetic approach of bioethical inquiry is a rapprochement between theoretical knowledge in moral philosophy and the contextualized, relational, and practical understanding of what morality demands of us in our daily lives. I argue for a conception of bioethical inquiry that takes morality to be a study of certain practical, socially embedded concerns about matters of right and wrong, good and evil, as well as a study of the moral theories by which these actual concerns can be explored and critically evaluated.     

The nature and scope of global ethics and the relevance of the Earth Charter

This article presents global ethics as critical reflection on the nature, justification and application of a global ethic. Much of the article focuses on the nature of a global ethic as the content of global ethics, e.g. whether it is thick or thin, is about universal values or transnational responsibilities, is a set of values justified by a particular thinker, values widely shared or values universally accepted. Global ethics itself as a process is also examined. In the last part the Earth Charter is examined as an example of a global ethic, and a case is made for regarding it, both in respect to its content and in respect to the senses in which it is and is not a global ethic, as an appropriate subject matter for global ethics.     

德法次序:一种现代政治伦理学叙事

道德和法律的关系,是体现现代性本质的一个核心问题。“德法次序”概念,可以将日常德治和法治关系的探讨,纳入到具有普遍性的政治哲学框架中来,实现一种现代政治哲学叙事。     

趋避道德动机调节方式的作用

道德动机是推动人们产生和完成具有道德意义和行为的内在动因。在解释道德动机的各种理论中, 道德动机模型(Model of Moral Motive, MMM)是一种比较综合的理论。该模型透过一个新颖的视角, 强调趋避两种动机调节方式在自我、他人和群体背景下产生的道德动机。通过对MMM模型综合性的分析, 并且横向比较了道德基础理论(MFT)和行为/结果双系统模型这两个具有代表性的道德理论, 挖掘出了MMM模型的比较优势, 如强调利他、聚焦于自我的道德动机、群体道德与意识形态之间的联系等。由于MMM模型是基于西方道德观提出的, 未来的研究重点应着重于西方道德动机的心理与脑机制与国人的异同以及文化差异对道德动机的影响。     

关于胚胎干细胞研究的一场伦理之争

关于“人兔细胞融合”的伦理之争,主要围绕“人兔细胞融合”实验是否违背伦理,要不要经过知情同意,以及科学技术与伦理道德的关系等问题而进行。这场讨论是正常的,健康的,有益的,倘能加以认真总结,将有助于推进学术争鸣。     

论伦理秩序

实存的伦理关系是客观条件与主观条件的历史性统一,伦理关系本质上是现实合理性秩序中的关系,是有主体精神渗透其中并通过道德、法律、习俗等规则体系维系的关系,它的首要问题是秩序的合理性和正当性。研究伦理秩序应把道德和伦理两个概念加以区分;伦理秩序的顺畅和谐在于道德的有效调节,也在于法律的有效控制。伦理秩序在社会变革中经过必然与自由的辩证运动,使矛盾化解,推动社会和谐发展。和谐社会应当是以公正支撑的合理的伦理秩序的社会。     

The Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Theological Perspective

Theological ethics can interpret the relation between evolution and morality in at least three ways. The reductionist approach holds that morality emerges because it is adaptive. The independent approach maintains that morality develops without registering the influence of evolution. Finally, the interdependence position holds that morality reflects the influence of evolution to the extent that the latter shapes human emotional capacities and predispositions, for example, those regarding reciprocity and kin preference. The third approach is more suitable for theological ethics, which attends to ways in which natural desires can be ordered to serve morality, for example, to be habituated to virtue, and to ways in which we must strive to curb or minimize their disruptive effects on human communities.     

Zones of consensus and zones of conflict: questioning the "common morality" presumption in bioethics

Many bioethicists assume that morality is in a state of wide reflective equilibrium. According to this model of moral deliberation, public policymaking can build upon a core common morality that is pretheoretical and provides a basis for practical reasoning. Proponents of the common morality approach to moral deliberation make three assumptions that deserve to be viewed with skepticism. First, they commonly assume that there is a universal, transhistorical common morality that can serve as a normative baseline for judging various actions and practices. Second, advocates of the common morality approach assume that the common morality is in a state of relatively stable, ordered, wide reflective equilibrium. Third, casuists, principlists, and other proponents of common morality approaches assume that the common morality can serve as a basis for the specification of particular policies and practical recommendations. These three claims fail to recognize the plural moral traditions that are found in multicultural, multiethnic, multifaith societies such as the United States and Canada. A more realistic recognition of multiple moral traditions in pluralist societies would be considerable more skeptical about the contributions that common morality approaches in bioethics can make to resolving contentious moral issues.     

Genealogy of Morality and Law

In order to clarify the relationship between morality and law, it is necessary to define both concepts precisely. Cultural realities refer to concepts which are more specifically defined if we focus towards the genealogy of those realities, that is to say, their motivation, function and aim. Should we start from legal anthropology, comparative law and history of law, law arises as a social technique which coactively imposes ways of solving conflicts, protecting fundamental values for a society's co-existence. Values subject to being protected are proposed by morality, the latter making subordination of law to morality inevitable. This explains that a great number of modern constitutions include a reference to fundamental moral values, that is to say, they have explicitly positivised moral contents. Legal reasoning, at all levels and expressions, needs to appeal to the aforementioned values. Constitutional reasoning, international law, legislative activity and judicial practice are studied to verify the latter. This subordination of law to morality sets out a serious problem: moralities are cultural realities which are only valid for a specific society. In order for law not to fall in a not very rational legal relativism, law should not be subordinated to morality, but to ethics, the latter understood as cross-cultural morality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a step forward in this sense.     

Embodied and Embedded Morality: Divinity, Identity, and Disgust

Our understanding of human morality would benefit from an integrated interdisciplinary approach, built on the assumption that human beings are multidimensional unities with real, irreducible, and mutually interdependent spiritual, relational, emotional, rational, and physiological aspects. We could integrate relevant information from neurobiological, psychosocial, and theological perspectives, avoiding unnecessary reductionism and naturalism. This approach is modeled by addressing the particular limited role of disgust in morality. Psychosocial research reveals disgust as a universal emotion that enables evaluation and regulation of certain moral behaviors and is involved in cultural identity. Theologically, many religious traditions, including the Judeo‐Christian, use disgust in conjunction with moral codes designed to preserve purity and communal identity as the people of God. The concept of natural moral law suggests that morality is embodied in human nature. Neurobiology is beginning to trace the neural circuitry involved in disgust and in moral evaluation, suggesting that emotions are a necessary basis for moral judgment and revealing intriguing relationships between disgust, morality, and other aspects of the psyche. Several problems that arise within these disciplines and at their intersections are identified. Extension of the model to other aspects of human morality would further illuminate our understanding of morality without sacrificing its complexity and richness.     

Confucian love and global ethics: how the cheng brothers would help respond to christian criticisms

There is an increasing awareness that we are living in a global village, which demands a global ethics. In this article, I shall explore what contributions Confucianism, particularly its conception of love, can make. It has often been claimed that Confucian love is love with distinction, as a natural feeling, and as merely human love and so it is inferior to the Christian love, which is universal, commanded, and based on divine love. Drawing on the resources of the Cheng brothers’ neo-Confucianism, I shall explore how Confucianism can make creative responses to such criticisms and thus make a unique Confucian contribution to the emerging global ethics.