Doing better: John Deweyâs meliorism as a method for bringing animal ethics into practice

H. Grimm

Doing better: John Deweyâs meliorism as a method for bringing animal ethics into practice

In: Global food security: ethical and legal challenges

Author:

H. Grimm

H. Grimm Institute TTN, Marsstr. 19, 80335 Munich, Germany; herwig.grimm@elkb.de

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 429â434

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086867103_070

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One of John Deweyâs guiding ideas was to reconstruct philosophy in order to solve practical problems. He considered the methodology of empirical sciences as the most promising approach to guide this reconstruction. In his perspective, the pattern of empirical inquiry is not only an appropriate methodology in empirical sciences but also in the humanities and especially in ethics. However, he did not develop this particular methodology for ethical problem solving. The paper presents the results of a PhD project. Its aim was to translate the pattern of empirical inquiry into an ethical methodology and apply it to a subject of farm animal welfare. Against the background of John Deweyâs work Logic: The Theory of Inquiry a melioristic methodology for ethical problem solving has been developed. In particular, the chapter The Pattern of Inquiry was used where Dewey describes a general structure of empirical sciences. It takes its starting point at the practical level of an indeterminate (problematic) situation, followed by four steps of effective problem solving: (1) Indeterminate situation; (2) Institution of the problem; (3) Determination of the problem-solution; (4) Reasoning; (5) Testing the hypothesis by action. In the following, the structure of ethical problem solving along Deweyâs Pattern of Inquiry will be described and some of its potentials and shortcomings will be outlined. The resulting melioristic approach supports the transformation of abstract ethical principles into practical contexts of farm animal husbandry while taking the responsible actorâs practical limitations into account.

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Global food security: ethical and legal challenges

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086867103

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 30 Oct 2010

Subjects
- Life Sciences

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Doing better: John Deweyâs meliorism as a method for bringing animal ethics into practice

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Global food security: ethical and legal challenges

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Doing better: John Deweyâs meliorism as a method for bringing animal ethics into practice