Triangular reflective equilibrium: a conscience-based method for bioethical deliberation

Bioethics
Y M Barilan, Margherita Brusa

Abstract

Following a discussion of some historical roots of conscience, we offer a systematized version of reflective equilibrium. Aiming at a comprehensive methodology for bioethical deliberation, we develop an expanded variant of reflective equilibrium, which we call 'triangular reflective equilibrium' and which incorporates insights from hermeneutics, critical theory and narrative ethics. We focus on a few distinctions, mainly between methods of justification in ethics and the social practice of bioethical deliberation, between coherence in ethical reasoning, personal integrity and consensus formation, and between political and moral deliberation. The ideal of deliberation is explicated as a sharing of conscience within a special commitment to sincerity and openness to persuasion. Personal growth in wisdom is an indirect by-product of the continuous practice of moral deliberation. This is explicated in the light of Sternberg's balance theory of wisdom and in the context of medicine as a profession embodying altruistic responsibilities of care in democratic and pluralistic societies.

Citations

Oct 25, 2011·The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy·Y Michael Barilan
Jan 31, 2014·The Journal of Medical Humanities·Luca Chiapperino, Giovanni Boniolo
Jun 29, 2016·The Journal of Nursing Education·Pierre Pariseau-Legault, Melisa Lallier
Jun 29, 2012·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·Y M Barilan, M Brusa

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