Authors:
- Presents a novel analysis of the scholarly and scientific debate about the precautionary principle
- Sets out a comprehensive overview of the basic theoretical starting points for a sound ethics of risk.
- Presents and argues in favor of an innovative ethical theory about the imposition of risks
- Discusses the practical implications of the resulting theory of the morality
- Analyses the political implications
Part of the book series: The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology (ELTE, volume 6)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Christian Munthe undertakes an innovative, in-depth philosophical analysis of what the idea of a precautionary principle is and should be about. A novel theory of the ethics of imposing risks is developed and used as a foundation for defending the idea of precaution in environmental and technological policy making against its critics, while at the same time avoiding a number of identified flaws. The theory is shown to have far-reaching practical conclusions for areas such as bio-, information- and nuclear technology, and global environmental policy in areas such as climate change. The author argues that, while the price we pay for precaution must not be too high, we have to be prepared to pay it in order to act ethically defensible. A number of practical suggestions for precautionary regulation and policy making are made on the basis of this, and some challenges to basic ethical theory as well as consumerist societies, the global political order and liberal democracy are identified.
Munthe’s book is a well-argued contribution to the PP debate, putting neglected justificatory and methodological questions at the forefront. His many discussions of alternative accounts as well as his drawing out the consequences of his own suggestion in practical cases give the reader a thorough, holistic sense of what justification of PP amounts to. /..../ Munthe’s main case, his argumentation for the requirement of precaution as a moral norm, is convincing and puts a strong pressure on too narrow alternative suggestions on how it should be perceived and justified, and he launches a plausible defence of its practical usability.
Keywords
- applied ethics
- bioethics
- biopolitics
- biotechnology
- climate change
- consumerism
- cosmopolitanism
- decision making
- decision theory
- energy policy
- environmental ethics
- environmental law
- ethics
- ethics of risk
- ethics of technology
- law
- moral philosophy
- nuclear power
- philosophy of risk
- philosophy of technology
- political philosophy
- pollution, precaution
- precaution
- precautionary principle
- rationality
- risk analysis
- risk management
- risk policy
- sustainable development
- technology policy
Authors and Affiliations
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, Department of Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Christian Munthe
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Price of Precaution and the Ethics of Risk
Authors: Christian Munthe
Series Title: The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1330-7
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V 2011
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-1329-1Published: 21 May 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3618-4Published: 15 July 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-1330-7Published: 19 May 2011
Series ISSN: 1875-0044
Series E-ISSN: 1875-0036
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 192
Topics: Ethics, Philosophy of Technology, Political Science, Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice, Environment, general