By Barry Hoffmaster
Hastings Center Report
Volume 44, Issue 3, pages 4–6, May-June 2014
The recent special report Narrative Ethics: The Role of Stories in Bioethics shows how narrative ethics can enlarge and enrich bioethics. Christine Mitchell, author of one of the essays in the collection, rightly attributes the popularity of narrative ethics to “the aridness of philosophical ethical theory.” Telling stories liberates morality from the constricted, philosophically grounded applied ethics that has dominated bioethics. Ethical theory is abstruse and indeterminate, and neither quality is tolerable when the people are real, the moral stakes are high, and the decision cannot be deferred. As with any emancipation, enthusiasm for narrative ethics abounds, but for its promise to be realized, the moral workings of stories need to be understood.
The entire article is here, behind a paywall.
Welcome to the Nexus of Ethics, Psychology, Morality, Philosophy and Health Care
Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Narrative Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Narrative Ethics. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Narrative Ethics
By James Phelan
the living handbook of narratology
the living handbook of narratology
Most recent revision on January 26, 2014
Definition
Narrative ethics explores the intersections between the domain of stories and storytelling and that of moral values. Narrative ethics regards moral values as an integral part of stories and storytelling because narratives themselves implicitly or explicitly ask the question, “How should one think, judge, and act—as author, narrator, character, or audience—for the greater good?”
Characteristic Questions and Positions
Investigations into narrative ethics have been diverse and wide-ranging, but they can be usefully understood as focused on one or more of four issues: (1) the ethics of the told; (2) the ethics of the telling; (3) the ethics of writing/producing; and (4) the ethics of reading/reception.
Questions about the ethics of the told focus on characters and events. Sample questions: What are the ethical dimensions of characters’ actions, especially the conflicts they face and the choices they make about those conflicts? What are the ethical dimensions of any one character’s interactions with other characters? How does a narrative’s plot signal its stance on the ethical issues faced by its characters?
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