Abstract

This article reviews suggestions for how ethical tools are to be evaluated and argues that the concept of ethical soundness as presented by Kaiser etal. (2007) is unhelpful. Instead, it suggests that the quality of an ethical tool is determined by how well it achieves its assigned purpose(s). Those are different for different tools, and the article suggests a categorization of such tools into three groups. For all ethical tools, it identifies comprehensiveness and user-friendliness as crucial. For tools that have reaching a decision in a democratic context as a main purpose, it identifies transparency, guiding users toward a decision and justification of the decision-supporting mechanism. For tools that aim to engage the public, it identifies procedural fairness as essential. It also notes that the scope of use for ethical tools is limited to the same moral community, and that this feature is frequently overlooked.

Keywords

applied ethics; consensus conference; ethical matrix; ethical soundness; ethical tools

Published in

Metaphilosophy
2015, Volume: 46, number: 2, pages: 263-279
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU Authors

• Sandin, Per

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Mistra Biotech


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels


UKÄ Subject classification

Philosophy
Ethics


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12130

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/67489