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From Reason to Practice in Bioethics: An Anthology Dedicated to the Works of John Harris brings together original contributions from some of the world’s leading scholars in the field of bioethics. With a particular focus on, and critical engagement with, the influential work of Professor John Harris, the book provides a detailed exploration of some of the most interesting and challenging philosophical and practical questions raised in bioethics. The book’s broad range of chapters make it a useful resource for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in the field of bioethics, and the relationship between philosophical and practical ethics. The range of contributors and topics afford the book a wide international interest.
19 Response to and reflections on chapters 3–18 John Harris I talked in my chapter at the beginning of this volume about my own efforts at self-improvement, a form of human enhancement which is not often discussed in the vast current literature on enhancement. It is now time to turn to the efforts of others to effect my improvement either by friendly criticism or commentary, or by sending in my direction thoughts from which I have undoubtedly benefitted and which I hope will interest and engage all readers of this book. All these papers deserve very detailed
2 Thought and memory John Harris What is bioethics for? Indeed what is ethics for? Readers of this volume will themselves have formed their own ideas about what bioethics is in terms of the questions it addresses and its methods of inquiry. But, apart from its intrinsic interest, what makes bioethics worth doing, what makes it worthy of anyone’s attention? What I hope this introductory chapter will do is give some sense of what I have been trying to do in my life in bioethics, and of some of the influences and events that have shaped its course. In short, I
the authors discuss in this collection, even our cognitive and moral abilities. The idea of writing this book was formed a long time ago, in April 2014, after the Third World Congress on Freedom of Scientific Research, held in Rome and organised and sponsored by the Luca Coscioni Association. The editor of this collection, John Harris and Lucio Piccirillo have collaborated with the Luca Coscioni Association and participated in the conference, either as speakers or organisers. But the origins of this book are even older. The World Congress on Freedom of Scientific
change, for example – others have had a role (whether or not they accept the claim) in shaping and speaking to the field as a whole; true expert generalists. Foremost amongst this latter breed of intellectual in UK bioethics is John Harris, a scholar whose work has been pivotal in the shaping of bioethics both in the UK and across the world. His expertise is in philosophy, with a particular focus on moral and political theory. But the development and application of his ideas over the last four and some decades have been born of discussions, debates and collaborations
Never have the scope and limits of scientific freedom been more important or more under attack. New science, from artificial intelligence to genomic manipulation, creates unique opportunities to make the world a better place. But it also presents unprecedented dangers, which many believe threaten the survival of humanity and the planet. This collection, by an international and multidisciplinary group of leading thinkers, addresses three vital questions: (1) How are scientific developments impacting on human life and on the structure of societies? (2) How is science regulated, and how should it be regulated? (3) Are there ethical boundaries to scientific developments in some sensitive areas (e.g. robotic intelligence, biosecurity)? The contributors are drawn from many disciplines, and approach the issues in diverse ways to secure the widest representation of the many interests engaged. They include some of the most distinguished academics working in this field, as well as young scholars.
argument in ethics John Harris thinks consistency is important in moral thinking. He thinks it is important, because he thinks that ethics is about making good arguments, and he thinks this because he thinks it is important to be right in ethics. And he thinks that being right in ethics is about believing things for reasons, which should be convincing and compelling. Richard Ashcroft 45 A rough restatement of the process of ethical argument, on Harris’s account, might be as follows.4 We are faced with a moral problem, about which we care passionately. If we did not
subject area for late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English architectural history. Such an approach is exemplified in the work emanating from the RIBA Drawings Collection, particularly during the curatorship of John Harris, 1956–86. 1 He utilized the techniques of the drawings specialist to catalogue the collection there and established architectural drawing studies