Ethics as Design and Its Two Distinctive Methods
The new conception of rationality as non-formal reason is completed by an explanation of how design in engineering can be brought to the design of practical problems in ethics, from which the notion of ethics as design for flourishing is developed. The conventional notions of balancing and specification in applied ethics are rejected and replaced by two methods that use non-formal reason: fully engaged moral compromise and wide reflective equilibrium. A case depicts a disagreement between a nurse and a doctor in an intensive care unit that is resolved by a compromise that emanates from a process of deliberation among the staff. Reflective equilibrium was widely adopted into moral philosophy, and it quickly expanded into wide reflective equilibrium. Here it is further enhanced by adding the three features of liberation, extension, and enrichment. The upshot of these developments is a completed initial account of non-formal rationality with four resources, two specific methods, and a shift from principles to values.
