Natural law and the ethical matrix: putting theory into practice

R.J. Lynch

Natural law and the ethical matrix: putting theory into practice

in Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

Autor:in:

R.J. Lynch

R.J. Lynch Department of Philosophy, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AA, United Kindgodm; r.j.lynch@rdg.ac.uk

Search for other papers by R.J. Lynch in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Art:: Kapitel

Seiten:: 376–380

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086866731_064

Über Institut einloggen

Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):

42,00 €35,00 € excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Token einlösen

In this paper I will argue that the philosophical justification of the ethical matrix (EM) should come from natural law theory (NL). In order to construct this argument, I assume that NL is the right system of moral philosophy to employ in life generally, not only in the ethical assessment of e.g. agricultural and food biotechnologies. I shall employ a modern representation of NL which has as its central tenets the notions of practical reason and basic goods. The basic goods are self-evidently good and in practical reason these basic goods guide our judgment in distinguishing between acts that are reasonable allthings- considered and those that are not. Something’s being reasonable is synonymous with its being morally right. The terms practical reason, basic goods and self-evidently good will all be defined at the outset of the paper. I will argue that the EM operates in accordance with this representation of NL. Wellbeing, autonomy and fairness are, I shall argue, self-evident goods and the only basic goods we need to guide us in our moral decision making both generally and specifically when applied to the consideration of emerging technologies. As a reasoning process that aims to reach a conclusion concerning what we should do via a consideration of the impact of a specified course of action on different interest groups as assessed through the medium of self evident basic goods, the EM is an instance of NL. A potential problem with using NL to support the EM lies in the anthropocentric nature of much of the work in the NL tradition. Anthropocentricity will make it hard to justify the impartial consideration between human and non-human interest groups that the EM demands. I will argue, however, that the concepts of sustainability and speciesism can be employed (in opposite directions) to suggest that anthropocentricity is unreasonable and that impartial consideration between human and non-human interest groups is not only justified but also demanded by NL.

Zitierungsangaben

Save
Cite
Inhalt per Mail versenden

Link teilen

Sie können einen Link zu dieser Seite per E-Mail senden:
Inhalt per Mail versenden
oder den Link direkt kopieren:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789086866731/BP000064.xml
Der Link wurde nicht kopiert. Ihr aktueller Browser unterstützt das Kopieren über diese Schaltfläche möglicherweise nicht.

Link wurde kopiert

Reduzieren
Erweitern
Nach oben

Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

ISBN:: 9789086866731

Verleger:: Wageningen Academic

Print-Publikationsdatum:: 30 Oct 2009

Fachgebiete
- Biowissenschaften

Kennzahlen

	Insgesamt	Letzte 365 Tage	In den letzten 30 Tagen
Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen	111	17	6
Gesamttextansichten	1	0	0
PDF-Downloads	3	1	0

Afrikanistik	Internationale Beziehungen	Nahost- und Islamwissenschaften
Altorientalistik und Ägyptologie	Internationales Recht	Pädagogik
Amerikanistik	Judaistik	Philosophie
Asienwissenschaften	Klassische Altertumswissenschaft	Religionswissenschaft
Bibelauslegung	Kunstgeschichte	Slawistik und Eurasienkunde
Biologie	Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften	Sozialwissenschaften
Biowissenschaften	Medienwissenschaft	Sprachen und Linguistik
Buchgeschichte und Kartographie	Menschenrechte und humanitäres Völkerrecht	Theologie und Christentum
Geschichte	Musikwissenschaft

Fachgebiete

Autor:innen

Open Access

Produkt-Informationen

Über uns

Kontakt

Natural law and the ethical matrix: putting theory into practice

Zitierungsangaben

Link teilen

Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Kennzahlen

Kennzahlen