Methods in Bioethics The Way We Reason Now

This volume collects essays by the late bioethicist John D. Arras, best known for his many contributions to the methodology of bioethics. Always open-minded, Arras did not favor a single theory or view of method in bioethics, eschewing labels such as "casuist" or "pragmatist." He was conversant with the main philosophical methods that have dominated bioethics since the field's origin, including principlism, Gert's common morality, the "new casuistry", pragmatism, and others. Rather than defending any particular theory or method, though, Arras rigorously investigated those methods - and how they both expand and limit our field of vision. He sought, in the tradition of Kierkegaard, to make life "harder" for bioethics, by uncovering challenges to the field's analytical methods. His favorite mode of exploration and expression was the thoughtful essay. The essays collected here reveal him thinking through new problems and new possibilities, and they invariably yield fresh and valuable insights.

The late John D. Arras was Porterfield Professor of Bioethics, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Public Health Sciences, as well as a scholar-in-residence in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. He was the author of numerous influential articles in bioethics as well as editor or co-editor of several books in the field. At the time of his death in 2015, he was a member of President Obama's Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.