An Agenda for Applied Ethics  

Oleh:

Vandevelde, Toon

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Ethical Perspectives: Journal of the European Ethics Network vol. 2 no. 1 (Apr. 1995), page 38-50.
Topik: Applied Ethics
Fulltext: Toon Van Houdt.PDF (113.98KB)

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE45.1 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Concern and interest for questions related to ethics has increased enormously in recent years both in society as a whole and in the universities. This in itself is quite an astounding fact. On a variety of levels, we see how in our contemporary Western culture moral virtues have become blurred. Not only has actual behaviour been severed from any sense of moral regulation (e.g. consider sexual behaviour), but people are less and less likely to accept with any moralising point of view which would confront them with rules and values: “No preaching, no taboos. Anything goes as long as no one gets hurt.” People defend the free development of personal preference and a personal outlook on life. Such developments have become a source of concern for many who see the traditional framework of education, a sense of purpose in life and hopes for the future collapsing all around them. The discourse of society has become amoral, defeatist, nihilistic and cynical. At the same time, however, it can be clearly observed that moral critique and reflection have focused more intensively than ever on many aspects of human behaviour, sometimes with a vehemence and a radicality which leaves former generations dumbfounded: people no longer just light a cigarette at will without thinking, nor throw glassware in the garbage bag; even the politicians are constantly being scrutinised to see whether they measure up to ethical standards. Moralising and censuring are also back with a vengeance: think, for example, of media campaigns which lay the blame for hunger and other tragedies of the Third World firmly at our own doorstep. Amoral cynicism is often the other side of hypersensitive moralising. Whatever the case, we are facing a radical shift in ethical debate. Certain aspects of human life (e.g. sexuality, the end of life) are being handed over to individual preference and demoralised, while others (e.g. our eating habits, our attitude towards animals) are being moralised. This shift is, however, more than a fashionable cultural phenomenon. Indeed, no one can deny that humanity is being faced with many challenges as it approaches the end of the millennium, challenges to which traditional morality cannot respond: consider, for example, the problem of the environment, demographic expansion, the internationalised economic order, biotechnology, the human genome project, etc. For the first time the task of ethics has become one of reflecting creatively and prospectively on new possibilities, and sometimes new dangers.

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