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Ethics of Vulnerability

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Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 55))

Abstract

The chapter begins by showing the facticity of vulnerability in different situations of life. Then, it asserts, as do authors such as Williams, Nagel, MacIntyre or Nussbaum, that western ethics has relegated the vulnerable nature of individuals and has brought to the fore the ideal of self-sufficiency, autonomy, will of power or of agency, when sketching models of good life. But, going beyond that, the question asked, in a third stage, is how to establish a foundation for the moral obligation of protecting vulnerable beings as a requirement of justice, and the chapter presents three relevant answers. Firstly, an ethics of care in the tradition of Hyginus, Heidegger, Boff and the Ethics of Earth, but also based on neuro-scientific and evolutionary biology studies, such as those of Churchland. Secondly, an ethics of responsibility, as proposed by Jonas, and by discourse ethics in the version of Apel and Habermas, underlining the differences between them. And finally, an ethics of cordial reason, which is a warm version of discourse ethics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This text is inserted within the Scientific Research and Technological Development Project FFI2013-47136-C2-1-P, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and within the activities of the research group of excellence PROMETEO/2009/085 of the Generalidad Valenciana.

    J. Ortega y Gasset, Historia como sistema, in Obras Completas (=OC), VI, Madrid, Taurus,2006, p. 65; ‘Pidiendo un Goethe desde dentro’, in OC, V, 2006, p. 120; ‘Epílogo de la filosofía’, in OC, IX, 2009, p. 583; J. L. L. Aranguren, La ética de Ortega, in Obras Completas, II, Madrid, Trotta, 1994, pp. 503–539.

  2. 2.

    A. Sen, Development as Freedom, New York, Anchor Books, 1999; D.A. Crocker, Ethics of Global Development, Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

  3. 3.

    A. Gehlen, Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt, Frankfurt a.M./Bonn, Athenäum, pp. 20, 33, 83 and 354.

  4. 4.

    X. Zubiri, Sobre el hombre, Madrid, Alianza, 1986.

  5. 5.

    J.L. Aranguren, La vejez como autorrealización personal y social, Madrid, Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales, 1992.

  6. 6.

    P. Laín, Antropología médica para clínicos, Barcelona, Salvat, 1984, p. 316.

  7. 7.

    N. Orringer, La aventura de curar, Barcelona, Galaxia Gutenberg/Círculo de Lectores, 1997, pp. 186–187.

  8. 8.

    D. Gracia, ‘Ética de la fragilidad’, in Bioética clínica, 2, Bogotá, El Búho, 1998, pp. 33–40.

  9. 9.

    A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1976, part I, section III, chap. 3 [this chapter was added in ed. 6] (p. 61–66): ‘Of the corruption of our moral sentiments’.

  10. 10.

    See G. Myrdal, AsianDrama. An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, New York, Twentieth Century Fund and Allen Lane The Penguin Books, 1968; The Challenge of World Poverty: A World Anti-Poverty Program in Outline, New York, Pantheon Books, 1970.

  11. 11.

    A. Sen, Poverty and Famines, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981; Development as Freedom, New York, Anchor Books, 2000; A. Cortina and G. Pereira (eds.), Pobreza y libertad, Madrid, Tecnos, 2009.

  12. 12.

    J. Conill, ‘The Philosophical Foundations of the Capabilities Approach’, in Ch. Luetge (ed.), Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics, Dordrecht/Heidelberg/New York/London, Springer, volume 2, p. 661–674.

  13. 13.

    J. Sachs, The End of Poverty, New York, The Penguin Press, 2005.

  14. 14.

    Th. Hobbes, Leviathan, edited by R. E. Flathman and D. Johnston, New York and London, W.W. Norton and Co., 1997, chap. XIII.

  15. 15.

    B. Williams, “Moral Luck”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 50 (1956); Th. Nagel, “Moral Luck”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 50 (1976), reprint in Mortal Questions, Cambridge, 1979, 24–38; M.C. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001 (revised edition). However, E. Bonete has defended that this is an exaggerated statement that he attempts to refute by setting out the thoughts of some classical authors such as St. Thomas of Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Stuart Mill, Schopenhauer, Levinas, Jonas, Apel, Noddings. SeeE. Bonete, Ética de la dependencia, Madrid, Tecnos, 2009.

  16. 16.

    L.A. Seneca, ‘De Providentia’, Dialogorum Libri Duodecim, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1977, 6, 6–12 (in Moral Essays, Cambridge Mass./London, Harvard University Press, 1985, p. 45). http://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-de_providentia/1928/pb_LCL214.45.xml.

  17. 17.

    I. Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter & Co., AkademieTextausgabe, 1968, VI, p. 409.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 384.

  19. 19.

    I. Kant, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter& Co., AkademieTextausgabe, 1968, IV, p. 436.

  20. 20.

    M. Riedel (ed.), Rehabilitierung der praktischen Philosophie, Bd. I, Freiburg i.B., Rombach, 1972.

  21. 21.

    Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, translated by H.G. Apostle, Dordrecht/Boston, Reidel Publishing, 1976, VI, 2, 1139b 4–5.

  22. 22.

    A. MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals, Chicago and La Salle, Carus Publishing Company, 1999.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., p. 9.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 117–118.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., p. 122.

  26. 26.

    J. Conill, Ética hermenéutica, Madrid, Tecnos, 2006, pp. 136–141.

  27. 27.

    F. Birulésand A.L. Di Tullio, “Entrevista con Martha C. Nussbaum”, in Barcelona Metrópolis, January-March, 2011 (http://w2.bcn.cat/bcnmetropolis/arxiu/en/page37cb.html?id=21&ui=473).

  28. 28.

    A. Cortina, ‘Martha C. Nussbaum: vulnerabilidad y justicia’, in Luisa Ribeiro (ed.), Marginalidade e Alternativa. Filósofas dos séculos XX e XXI (forthcoming).

  29. 29.

    M. Heidegger, Sein und Zeit, Tübingen, Max Niemeyer, § 41 and foll.

  30. 30.

    L. Boff, El cuidado necesario, Madrid, Trotta, 2012; see also Encyclical Letter ‘Laudatio Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on care for our common home, 2015.

  31. 31.

    It is curious that the term “sustainability” is taken from the economic field andthat it was introduced by Carl von Carlowitzin 1713, in De Sylvicultura oeconomica. See M. Novo, El desarrollo sostenible, Madrid, Pearson/UNESCO, pp. 152–153.

  32. 32.

    A. Cortina, Neuroética y neuropolítica. Sugerencias para la educación moral, Madrid, Tecnos, 2011, chaps. 2 and 4; ¿Para qué sirve realmente la ética?, Barcelona, Paidós, 2013, chap. 3.

  33. 33.

    P. S. Churchland, Braintrust, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2011.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 16. This point, in our opinion, is very true, although we substantially disagree with the rest of Churchland’s theoretical construction. See A. Cortina, “Neuroética y ética del discurso”, in A. Salles and K. Evers (Coord.), La vida social del cerebro, México, Fontamara, 2014, pp. 167–191.

  35. 35.

    W.D. Hamilton, “The evolution of altruistic behavior”, in American Naturalist, 97, pp. 354–356; “The genetical evolution of social behavior”, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, pp. 1–52.

  36. 36.

    A. Cortina, Neuroética y neuropolítica, pp. 112 ff.

  37. 37.

    H. Jonas, Das Prinzip Verantwortung, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1984, p. 249 [The Imperative of Responsibility, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1984, p. 139].

  38. 38.

    Ibid., pp. 84–85 [The Imperative of Responsibility, pp. 38–39].

  39. 39.

    Ibid., p. 85 [The Imperative of Responsibility, p. 39].

  40. 40.

    K.-O. Apel, “The Problem of a Macroethic of Responsibility to the Future in the Crisis of Technological Civilization: An Attempt to Come to Terms with Hans Jonas’s ‘Principle of Responsibility’”, Man and World 20: p. 3–40 (1987).

  41. 41.

    Ibid., p. 19.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., p. 20.

  43. 43.

    At a conference given in Goteborg and published later in Transformation der Philosophie, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1973, II, pp. 358–435.

  44. 44.

    K.-O. Apel, “The Problem of a Macroethic of Responsibility to the Future in the Crisis of Technological Civilization: An Attempt to Come to Terms with Hans Jonas’s ‘Principle of Responsibility’”, p. 24.

  45. 45.

    L. Kohlberg, D. R. Boyd und Ch. Levine, “Die Wiederkehr der sechsten Stufe: Gerechtigkeit, Wohlwollen und der Standpunkt der Moral”, W. Edelstein & G. Nunner-Winkler, Zur Bestimmung der Moral, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1986, pp. 205–240.

  46. 46.

    J. Habermas, ‘Gerechtigkeit und Solidarität’, in: W. Edelstein & G. Nunner-Winkler, Zur Bestimmung der Moral, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1986, pp. 291–318.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., p. 309.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., pp. 310 ff.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., pp. 310–312.

  50. 50.

    I. Kant, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, pp. 429–430.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., p. 433.

  52. 52.

    I. Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten, p. 395.

  53. 53.

    I. Kant, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, p. 433.

  54. 54.

    J. Conill, ‘The Philosophical Foundations of the Capabilities Approach’, p. 664.

  55. 55.

    I. Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten, p. 457.

  56. 56.

    Aristotle, Rhetoric, II, 8, 1385b 13 ff. M. Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 306 ff.

  57. 57.

    A. Cortina, Covenant and Contract, Leuven, Peeters, 2003.

  58. 58.

    A. Cortina, Ética de la razón cordial, Nobel, Oviedo, 2007.

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  1. Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Adela Cortina & Jesús Conill

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  1. Adela Cortina
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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Aniceto Masferrer

  2. Department of Political Sciences, Ethics and Sociology, CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain

    Emilio García-Sánchez

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Cortina, A., Conill, J. (2016). Ethics of Vulnerability. In: Masferrer, A., García-Sánchez , E. (eds) Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32693-1_3

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