{"id":173,"date":"2009-08-22T12:52:55","date_gmt":"2009-08-22T11:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=173"},"modified":"2009-08-22T12:52:55","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T11:52:55","slug":"this-just-in-from-tubingen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/08\/22\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\/","title":{"rendered":"This just in from T\u00fcbingen…"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I’m surprised,” said the German philosopher whose name I’ve forgotten but next to whom I was walking towards the ice-cream parlour, “how little argument there is here.”<\/p>\n

I have to admit it\u00a0– had he chosen his parallel sessions unluckily, he could easily have been left with the notion that the ESPMH is an argument-free zone: I, too, was struck by\u00a0that.\u00a0 And anyone who thought or dared hope that principlism might one day fade would have been disappointed, too – it seems to be alive and well.\u00a0 I agreed with the claim of one paper that I heard that we ought to move away from B&C – but not with the suggestion that we ought to move towards another principlist system.<\/p>\n

But enough carping – every conference has papers that don’t impress, and contributors that don’t impress either; but every confernce also has papers that are interesting, challenging, and provocative.\u00a0 The same applies here.\u00a0\u00a0I particularly enjoyed Freida Simonstein’s paper on IVF and hESC research in Israel – it was a real eye-opener.<\/p>\n

There was a number of other papers to which I’d have objections, but to which I’d object for the right reasons.\u00a0 Michael Norup and Peter Rossel from Copenhagen were suggesting that Experimental Philosophy (X-Phi) is capable of providing insights into the way that bioethical thought gets done and the way that the public thinks about morality, taking as its jumping-offf point the Knobe Effect<\/a>.\u00a0 (Bastard!\u00a0 How can he have a phenomenon named after him already?\u00a0 He only got his PhD three years ago, grumble grumble…)\u00a0 I have to say I don’t buy the thesis that X-Phi can teach us much – I have yet to lose my suspicion of X-Phi generally – because, as far as I can see, it’s central to philosophy that it regulate<\/em>, rather than describe, what we think, and empiricism can’t obviously help us out much here.\u00a0 To rely on empirical findings strikes me as non-philosophical at best; I suspect, though, that there’s something anti-philosophical about too heavy a reliance on the strategy.\u00a0 And on a practical level, you can produce all the empirical evidence you want about the way that people do<\/em> think, and it won’t help you at all to resolve a dispute.<\/p>\n

But let’s not get too gloomy: Jan Payne and Pavel Martasek from Prague were suggesting that metaethics is withering, but that bioethics can revivify the discipline, they were also suggesting that bioethics as a discipline reflects a shift in morality from an “ethics of temptation” to an “ethics of dilemma”.\u00a0 This seems like too strong a claim in the first place, and too vague a claim in the second (or, to the extent that it’s clear, based on a false distinction) – but still, the paper provided food for thought.<\/p>\n

I was also impressed with Diego Gracia’s plenary.\u00a0 He was advancing the claim that ethics – qua<\/em> universalistic, rational\u00a0pursuit of the good –\u00a0is a creation of Western culture, but that this is threatened by a crisis in rationality from the last century or so.\u00a0 I recognise a lot of Heidegger in this, with a sniff of Husserl and a couple of PoMo thinkers, too.\u00a0 Gracia wanted us to accept that the way we think is changing, and that philosophy must change, too; for him, we’re in a period of crisis that is comparable to that which\u00a0led Socrates to critique of Athenian society.\u00a0 Once again, I’m not so sure – for reasons comparable to those that make me hesitiate about X-Phi: philosophy isn’t about reacting to thought, but regulating it as a critical friend.\u00a0 It aspires to timelessness, even if it knows that that timelessness is impossible.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Gracia’s paper is one that’s left me mulling over a few things that were previously unconsidered.<\/p>\n

Away from the papers, the conference was tremendously well-run, and there was a really great atmosphere.\u00a0 Full credit has to go to the staff of EK Universit\u00e4t T\u00fcbingen for their organsiational skills, and to the students who kept things running on the ground.\u00a0 It was a tremendous show all round.<\/p>\n

Enough of me: how was it for you?\u00a0 Comments about highlights and lowlights welcome…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I’m surprised,” said the German philosopher whose name I’ve forgotten but next to whom I was walking towards the ice-cream parlour, “how little argument there is here.” I have to admit it\u00a0– had he chosen his parallel sessions unluckily, he could easily have been left with the notion that the ESPMH is an argument-free zone: […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,479,328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences","category-navel-gazing","category-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"\nThis just in from T\u00fcbingen... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/08\/22\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This just in from T\u00fcbingen... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“I’m surprised,” said the German philosopher whose name I’ve forgotten but next to whom I was walking towards the ice-cream parlour, “how little argument there is here.” I have to admit it\u00a0– had he chosen his parallel sessions unluckily, he could easily have been left with the notion that the ESPMH is an argument-free zone: [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/08\/22\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-22T11:52:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"This just in from T\u00fcbingen…\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-22T11:52:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":723,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Conferences\",\"Navel-gazing\",\"Philosophy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/08\\\/22\\\/this-just-in-from-tubingen\\\/\",\"name\":\"This just in from T\u00fcbingen... - 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