Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

Living Edition
| Editors: Henk ten Have

Social Ethics

Living reference work entry
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_395-1
How to cite

Abstract

The ethical values and behaviors are not only abstract terms, but they are refined and conceptualized by real-life experiences. The societal context where the actions of humans can be analyzed by ethical decision-making is entirely relevant to deliberate on what is the right thing to do and what the moral agent should do, since the ethical values and principles response to the actual practices of life and to the needs of humans in the society. This elaboration takes us to the realm of social ethics.

This article reviews the definition and contextual meaning of social ethics at a broader level by giving special emphasis to the ethical theories and principles, focusing on the societal and public setting. Ethics will be deliberated with social and community aspects. Based on the principle of justice and public health ethics, the concept of social ethics has been investigated concisely through the relationship between man, as a moral person, and the society in exemplification of the issues of healthcare ethics. It is argued that the tension between individualism and communitarian needs can be reconciled with the perspective of social ethics by respecting the individual autonomy without disregarding the common good and social justice. By promoting the values of social responsibility, solidarity, and social utility, social ethics has been proposed as the basis of a rational, moral, egalitarian, pluralistic, democratic society rising on the pillars of human rights and human dignity.

Keywords

Ethics Ethical theories Ethical principles Beneficence Non-maleficence Autonomy Justice Common good Distributive justice Equality Individual freedom Public health ethics Public reason Social rights Social utility Solidarity Social responsibility 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my colleagues, Nadi Bakirci, MD, PhD, professor of Public Health and Pinar Topsever, MD, PhD, associate professor of Family Medicine for their inspirations.

References

  1. Armstrong, A. C. (1907). Individual and social ethics. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 4(5), 119–122. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2010586. Accessed 21 Sept 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Beauchamp, T. L. (2003). Methods and principles in biomedical ethics. Journal of Medical Ethics, 29, 269–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Beauchamp, T. L. (2008). Ethical theory and bioethics. In T. L. Beauchamp, L. R. Walters, J. P. Kahn, & A. C. Mastroianni (Eds.), Contemporary issues in bioethics (7th ed., pp. 25–26). Belmont, USA: Wadsworth Cengage.Google Scholar
  4. Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2009). Principles of biomedical ethics (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  5. Childress, J. E., Faden, R. R., Gaare, R. D., Gostin, L. O., Kahn, J., Bonnie, R. J., Kass, N. E., Mastroianni, A. C., Moreno, J. D., & Nieburg, P. (2002). Public health ethics: Mapping the terrain. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, 30, 170–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Craut, R. (2014). Aristotle’s ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In E. N. Zalta (Principal Editor), First published Tue 1 May 2001; substantive revision Mon 21 Apr 2014, ISSN 1095–5054. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/. Accessed 26 Feb 2015
  7. Di Mattia, P. (2008). Ethics. In W. Kirch (Ed.), Encyclopedia of public health. Springer Reference. www.springerreference.com. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, 2011-01-31 23:00:00 UTC.
  8. Gillon, R. (2003). Ethics needs principles – four can encompass the rest – and respect for autonomy should be “first among equals”. Journal of Medical Ethics, 29, 307–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Hare, R. M. (2012). A utilitarian approach. In H. Kuhse & P. Singer (Eds.), A companion to bioethics (2nd ed., pp. 85–90). Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
  10. Lévy, B. (1997). Globalisation et développement: à la recherche d’une éthique sociale. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d’études du développement, 18(3), 519–534, Published online: 14 Jun 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. McCarthy, G. (1986). German social ethics and return to Greek Philosophy Aristotle and Marx. Studies in Soviet Thought, 31, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Pauer-Studer, H. (2006). Public reason and bioethics. MedGenMed, 8(4), 13.Google Scholar
  13. Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice (rev. ed.). Copyright 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Printed in the United States of America. This book is a revised version of A Theory of Justice published in 1971 by Harvard University Press, Sixth Printing 2003.Google Scholar
  14. Rawls, J. (1997). The idea of public reason revisited. The University of Chicago Law Review, 64(3), 765–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice, Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  16. Richardson, H. S. (2015). John Rawls (1921–2002). The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (A peer-reviewed academic resource). In J. Fieser, B. Dawson (Eds.), ISSN 2161–0002. http://www.iep.utm.edu/. Accessed 24 Feb 2015.
  17. Rozuel, C. (2013). Social contract. In S. Idowu, N. Capaldi, L. Zu, & A. Gupta (Eds.), Encyclopedia of corporate social responsibility. Springer Reference. www.springerreference.com. Berlin\Heidelberg: Springer, 2013-03-13 15:49:25 UTC
  18. Schwartz, L., Preece, P. E., & Hendry, R. A. (2002). Medical ethics, a case-based approach. Edinburgh, UK: Saunders Elsevier.Google Scholar
  19. Shamoo, A. E., & Resnik, D. B. (2009). Responsible conduct of research (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Veatch, R. M. (2003). The basics of bioethics (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Further Readings

  1. Anand, S., Peter, F., & Sen, A. (Eds.). (2009). Public health, ethics, and equity. New York: Oxford University Press (Reprinted).Google Scholar
  2. Buchanan, A. (2010). Health-care delivery and resource allocation. In R. M. Veatch (Ed.), Medical ethics (2nd ed.) (pp. 321–361). Mississagua, Canada: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.Google Scholar
  3. Guttman, W. (2008). Ethics of health promotion. In K. Heggenhougen (editor-in-chief), & S. Quah (Associate editor-in-chief), International encyclopedia of public health: Vol. 2. (pp. 477–482). Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier, Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
  4. Pogge, T. (2005). Human rights and global health: A research program. Metaphilosophy, 36(1–2), 2005.Google Scholar
  5. Wikler, D., & Marchand, S. (2012). Society’s allocation of resources for health. In H. Kuhse & P. Singer (Eds.), A companion to bioethics (Blackwell companions to philosophy 2nd ed., Vol. VIII, pp. 351–361). Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Medicine, Department of History of Medicine and EthicsAcibadem UniversityAtasehir-IstanbulTurkey