Morality, leadership and public policy
Subtitle: on experimentalism in ethics
By: Eric Thomas Weber
Series: Continuum studies in political philosophy; Continuum studies in political philosophy
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9781441173119
Subjects: Moral and ethical aspects; Leadership; Political planning
Description: In Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy, Eric Weber argues for an experimentalist approach to moral theory in addressing practical problems in public policy. The experimentalist approach begins moral inquiry by examining public problems and then makes use of the tools of philosophy and intelligent inquiry to alleviate them. Part I surveys the uses of practical philosophy and answers criticisms including religious challenges of the approach, presenting a number of areas in which philosophers intellectual efforts can prove valuable for resolving public conflicts. Part II presents a new approach to experimentalism in moral theory, based on the insights of John Dewey's pragmatism. Focusing on the elements of good public inquiry and the experimentalist attitude, Weber discusses ways of thinking about the effective construction and reconstruction of particular problems, including practical problems of public policy prioritization. Finally, in Part III the book examines real-world examples in which the experimentalist approach to ethics proves useful, including instances of bandwidth theft and the controversies surrounding activist judges in the US Supreme Court.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-183) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part One. Philosophy and religion in public policy; title: Part Two. Experimentalism, problem construction, and priorities; title: Part Three: New technologies and experiments in judging.