Contextuality, Bioethics, and the Nature of Philosophy: Reflections on Murdoch, Diamond, Walker, and the Groningen Approach

Abstract:Beginning with Barry Hoffmaster’s charge that we reclaim bioethics from the moral philosopher’s top-down theorizing, I discuss two moral philosophy contexts that offer resources for the kind of complex attention Hoffmaster demands: Iris Murdoch and Cora Diamond in moral philosophy and Margaret Urban Walker, Hilde Lindeman, and Marian Verkerk’s joint take on bioethics. My aim is: 1) to dispel a simplified notion of philosophy in bioethics; 2) to unite two strands of philosophy, which converge on important issues relevant to contemporary bioethics; and 3) to explore these strands in terms of enabling, maieutic work on our ethical points of departure.