[Dialectics or Eristics. The Hermeneutic Approach to Biomedical Ethics as a Problem or as a Solution].

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the conditions in which the hermeneutical approach can make an irreplaceable contribution to biomedical ethics. This contribution is understood in the light of one of the main shortcomings of current methodologies (in this work we will refer basically to Principlism and Casuistics), which ultimately operate as mere chains of transmission of the moral agent's prejudges. Although prejudices cannot be avoided, however, it does not mean that they cannot be overcome, if, with Gadamer, we realize that understanding is in some way directed towards the truth of things. This postulate allows us to connect Gadamerian Hermeneutics with Aristotelian Ethics -something which Gadamer himself does, but only to the effects of defining his notion of understanding- and to try to offer a way out for the aforementioned weakness of current methodologies.