The Confluence of Philosophy and Law in Applied Ethics

by Norbert Paulo

Overview

The law serves a function that is not often taken seriously enough by ethicists, namely practicability. A consequence of practicability is that law requires elaborated and explicit methodologies that determine how to do things with norms. This consequence forms the core idea behind this book, which employs methods from legal theory to inform and examine debates on methodology in applied ethics, particularly bioethics. It is argued that almost all legal methods have counterparts in applied ethics, which indicates that much can be gained from comparative study of the two.

The author first outlines methods as used in legal theory, focusing on deductive reasoning with statutes as well as analogical reasoning with precedent cases. He then examines three representative kinds of contemporary ethical theories, Beauchamp and Childress’s principlism, Jonsen and Toulmin’s casuistry, and two versions of consequentialism—Singer’s preference utilitarianism and Hooker’s rule-consequentialism—with regards to their methods. These examinations lead to the Morisprudence Model for methods in applied ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137557339
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	05/27/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Norbert Paulo is a lecturer in practical philosophy at the University of Salzburg, Austria. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Hamburg University, Germany, where he studied both philosophy and law. His primary research concerns applied ethics, ethical theory, philosophy of law, and empirical ethics.

Table of Contents

PART I: ETHICS AND LAW.- 1 The Black-Box Problem.- METHODS.- OUTLINE.- 2 Ethics, Applied Ethics, and Law.- TERMINOLOGY: ETHICS AND MORALITY.- ETHICS, APPLIED ETHICS, BIOETHICS.- ETHICS AND LAW.- CONCLUSION.- PART II: METHODS IN LEGAL THEORY.- 3 Norms.- ABSTRACT AND GENERAL NORMS.- PRINCIPLES AND RULES.- Dworkin on Principles.- Principles as Optimization Requirements.- 4 Norm Application.- DEDUCTIVE STRUCTURE.- INTERPRETATION.- RULES OF INTERPRETATION.- Some Intricacies.- REASONING WITH PRECEDENTS.- Precedents.- What is binding?.- Strict binding force?.- ANALOGICAL REASONING.- Brewer’s Theory of Analogical Reasoning.- The sequence of processes.- CONCLUSION.- 5 Norm Development.- EXPANSIONS.- Supplementation.- Conflict of principles: proportionality test.- The four steps.- Critique.- Gap-Filling.- Distinguishing.- REVISIONS.- Overruling.- Correction of Mistakes.- NEW LEGISLATION.- CONCLUSION.- PART III: METHODS IN CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORIES.- 6 Principlism.- THE STRUCTURE OF PRINCIPLISM.- Clusters of Principles and the Common Morality.- Principles and Rules.- Ideals, Virtues, and Rights.- PRINCIPLISM’s NORMATIVE CONTENT.- Respect for Autonomy.- Nonmaleficence.- Beneficence, Impartiality, and Moral Status.- Justice.- Relationship.- THEORY OF JUSTIFICATION.- METHODS.- Specification.- The importance of revisions and expansions.- Richardson’s definition.- Interpretation.- Abandoning specification.- Balancing.- The constraining conditions and proportionality.- Critique and alternatives.- CONCLUSION.- 7 Casuistry.- THE BASICS.- THE STRUCTURE OF CASUISTRY.- Morphology.- Taxonomy.- Kinetics.- CRITIQUE.- Cases do not speak forthemselves.- What rules the case?.- Importance of the Taxonomy.- The Role of Paradigms.- Arbitrary Kinetics.- Casuistry’s Conventionality.- A BETTER STRUCTURE FOR CAUSISTRY.- Rules: Maxims and Paradigms.- Application of Paradigms.- Overruling and Distinguishing Paradigms.- Analogical Reasoning.- CONCLUSION.- 8 Consequentialism.- PETER SINGER’s PREFERENCE UTILITARIANISM.- The Practice of Singer’s Theory.- BRAD HOOKER’s RULE-CONSEQUENTIALISM.- The Basic Theory.- Structure.- Impartiality, Reflective Equilibrium, and Pluralism.- Prima Facie Rules, Interpretation, and Conflicts.- Hooker on Euthanasia.- CONCLUSION.- 9 The Morisprudence Model for Applied Ethics.- DEDUCTIVE NORM APPLICATION.- APPLICATION AND DEVELOPMENT.- WHY THE MORISPRIDENCE MODEL?.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Paulo’s book is perhaps the most sophisticated and illuminating exploration of casuistry available to date. He shows that casuistry, when done properly, is much closer to legal reasoning than other theorists have appreciated. The book also contains the most comprehensive and deep criticism of principlism I have seen.” (Allen E. Buchanan, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, Duke University, USA)

“Norbert Paulo’s book is an outstanding treatment of methods in both legal theory and contemporary ethical theory. It contains original and forceful analyses of methods of applied ethics. Everyone interested in methods of applied ethics will want to be familiar with Paulo’s arguments and conclusions. The evaluations of Principlism, Casuistry, and Consequentialism are especially noteworthy.” (Tom L. Beauchamp, Professor of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar, Georgetown University, USA)