Morality, leadership, and public policy : on experimentalism in ethics /

In Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy, Eric Weber argues for an experimentalist approach to moral theory in addressing practical problems in public policy. The experimentalist approach begins moral inquiry by examining public problems and then makes use of the tools of philosophy and intelligen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full text (MCPHS users only)
Main Author: Weber, Eric Thomas
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: London ; New York, NY : Continuum, 2011
Series:Continuum studies in political philosophy.
Subjects:
Local Note:ProQuest Ebook Central
Description
Summary:In Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy, Eric Weber argues for an experimentalist approach to moral theory in addressing practical problems in public policy. The experimentalist approach begins moral inquiry by examining public problems and then makes use of the tools of philosophy and intelligent inquiry to alleviate them. Part I surveys the uses of practical philosophy and answers criticisms including religious challenges of the approach, presenting a number of areas in which philosophers intellectual efforts can prove valuable for resolving public conflicts. Part II presents a new approach to experimentalism in moral theory, based on the insights of John Dewey's pragmatism. Focusing on the elements of good public inquiry and the experimentalist attitude, Weber discusses ways of thinking about the effective construction and reconstruction of particular problems, including practical problems of public policy prioritization. Finally, in Part III the book examines real-world examples in which the experimentalist approach to ethics proves useful, including instances of "bandwidth theft" and the controversies surrounding activist judges in the US Supreme Court.
Physical Description:1 online resource (ix, 188 pages) : illustrations
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-183) and index.
ISBN:9781441174185
1441174184
Source of Description, Etc. Note:Print version record.