Ethical Judgment; the Use of Science in Ethics.

Abstract

In Ethical Judgment, Abraham Edel makes clear the part played by biological and social scientific information ethical judgment and moral action using psychological, anthropological, and economic materials as well as historical studies. Edel suggests that many controversies ethical theory have emerged because different ethical theories made different scientific assumptions. In the almost forty years since his book was first published, life has become more complex and technological change has accelerated, bringing changes to our morality and ethical theory as well as our conduct. If anything, his observations are even more pertinent, compelling us to examine the empirical core of ethical statements. Edel maintains that since our knowledge of social life and history constantly growing, moral theories and ethical judgments ought to embody the best knowledge available at any point tune. However, because all knowledge and belief only probable, there never absolute certainty but only what Edel calls residual indeterminacy in human life and knowledge due to complexity and change. Edel lists four factors that form the basis for moral decisions: universal needs (food); perennial aspirations (friendships); central necessary conditions (job security); and critical contingent factors under special circumstances (land reform a landholder-ruled society). In his new introduction, Edel applies those factors to the present day, discussing societal changes over the past forty years, such as the number of women the workforce, the impact of the civil rights movement, and the fact that isolationism as a national policy no longer feasible. Ethical Judgment is a recognized classic hi the modern study of ethical theory. It will be valuable reading for sociologists, historians, and all scholars interested the study of ethics and American culture.