Drawing The Boundaries Of The Ethical Self Essay -- Philosophy Ethics

Drawing The Boundaries Of The Ethical egotismThis paper evaluates some philosophic views regarding the ego who is an good deliberator and agent-specifically the traditional atomistic individualist self and the grow biocentric self of deep ecology. The paper then presents an alternating(a) manner of thought about the ethical self which avoids some of the philosophical difficulties of the foregoing views. This alternative draws on the recent work by Val Plumwood and Donna Haraway. Haraways cyborg identity is a kind of self-in- similitude (Plumwoods term) which allows for ethical deliberations that take relations with others seriously without losing individuality in problematic holism (as deep ecology does). Self-in-relation is defined by the relation of intentional inclusion. This relation is given a functionalist, non-mentalistic interpretation. The notions of ontological foresight and chaste foresight are introduced to enable determinations of moral responsibility without fal ling indorse into the problematic universalism which otherwise issuances from the functionalist view of cyborg self-in-relation. Ethical deliberation does not typically begin with an explicit articulation of the concept of self which underlies such deliberation. But a self is fancied, and usually in Western ethical thought it is an atomistic egocentric individual self. Ethical deliberation, whether deontological, utilitarian, or otherwise, assumed a self/other boundary of some kind, and such an self-reliance imports bias into our ethical conclusion. Ethical deliberations frequently focus on the interests or rights of individuals, without justifying the assumption of an egocentric individual self.If the traditionally-assumed egocentric individual self ci... ... the self which avoids the difficulties which result from the universalization of the deep ecology modes as well as those which result from individual egocentrism. bionic man selves are neither isolated egos nor world-sou ls which merge individuals. Cyborg selves are contingent, multiple, adaptive, connected. The mutable character of cyborg selves points out the necessity for acknowledging, quite a than assuming, the boundaries of the self as a part of ethical deliberation.ReferencesHaraway, Donna J. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature. New York Routledge.Plumwood, Val. 1995. Nature, Self and Gender Feminism, Environmental Philosophy, and the Critique of Rationalism. in People, Penguins, and Plastic Trees Basic Issues in Environmental Ethics, 2d ed., eds. Christine Pierce and Donald VanDeVeer. Belmont, CA Wadsworth Publishing Co.