Ethics Expertise

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction: In Search of Ethics Expertise

   • Lisa M. Rasmussen

   Pages 1-12

3. A Guided Historical Tour

   1. Socrates and Moral Expertise

      • Scott Labarge

      Pages 15-38

   2. Aristotle’s Moral Expert: The phronimos

      • Carrie-Ann Biondi Khan

      Pages 39-53

   3. Hume on True and False Philosophy

      • Christopher Tollefsen

      Pages 55-71

   4. Moral Expertise: A Millian Perspective

      • Dale E. Miller

      Pages 73-87

   5. The Ineffable and the Incalculable: G.E. Moore on Ethical Expertise

      • Ben Eggleston

      Pages 89-102

   6. Pragmatism and Ethical Expertise

      • Griffin Trotter

      Pages 103-122

4. Contemporary Perspectives

   1. Expert Moral Choice in Medicine: A Study of Uncertainty and Locality

      • Mary Ann G. Cutter

      Pages 125-137

   2. Societal Consensus and the Problem of Consent: Refocusing the Problem of Ethics Expertise in Liberal Democracies

      • Corinna Delkeskamp-Hayes

      Pages 139-163

   3. Ethical Expertise, Maternal Thinking, and the Work of Clinical Ethicists

      • Lisa S. Parker

      Pages 165-207

5. Contemporary Applications

   1. The Roles of Scientific and Normative Expertise in Public Policy Formation: The Anthrax Vaccine Case

      • Robert M. Veatch

      Pages 211-225

   2. Philosophers Return to the Agora

      • Kenneth Cust

      Pages 227-241

   3. Ethical Expertise in the Clinical Setting

      • Stephen Wear

      Pages 243-258

   4. Bioethical Expertise in Health Care Organizations

      • Ana Smith Iltis

      Pages 259-267

   5. The Expert Ethics Witness as Teacher

      • Kenneth Kipnis

      Pages 269-278

6. Back Matter

   Pages 279-279

   PDF

Section I examines historical philosophical understandings of expertise in order to situate the current institution of bioethics. Section II focuses on philosophical analyses of the concept of expertise, asking, among other things, how it should be understood, how it can be acquired, and what such expertise warrants. Finally, section III addresses topics in bioethics and how ethics expertise should or should not be brought to bear in these areas, including expertise in the court room, in the hospital room, in the media, and in making policy. 2. A GUIDED HISTORICAL TOUR As Scott LaBarge points out, Plato’s dialogues can be viewed as an extended treatment of the concept of moral expertise, so it is fitting to begin the volume with an examination of “Socrates and Moral Expertise”. Given Socrates’ protestations (the Oracle at Delphi notwithstanding) that he knows nothing, LaBarge observes that it would be interesting to determine both what a Socratic theory of moral expertise might be and whether Socrates qualified as such an expert. Plato’s model of moral expertise is what LaBarge calls “demonstrable expertise”, which is concerned mainly with the ability to attain a goal and to explain how one did it. The problem with this account is that when one tries to solve the various problems in the model – for example, allowing that moral expertise is not an all-or-nothing skill – then one is immediately faced with the “credentials problem”. As LaBarge puts it, “. . .

• Aristotle
• Ethical Expertise
• bioethics
• ethics
• health
• knowledge
• morality
• philosophy

From the reviews:

"The essays in this collection represent both a summary of the debate about expertise in medical ethics and also take the argument a little further. ... Ethics Expertise is a solid contribution to the literature in this area. It is an important topic and these papers help to advance the debate." (Christian Perring, Metapsychology Online Reviews, July, 2006)

• University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA

  Lisa Rasmussen

Policies and ethics