Rethinking Autonomy

A Critique of Principlism in Biomedical Ethics

Inbunden, Engelska, 2013

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Provides a critique of and alternative to the dominant paradigm used in biomedical ethics by exploring the Japanese concept of autonomy.This groundbreaking book offers a critical examination of the concept of autonomy, one with major implications for biomedical ethics. Working from the perspectives of ethnography and medical anthropology, John W. Traphagan argues that the notion of autonomy as a foundational principle of a common morality, the view dominant in North America, is inadequate as a universal moral category because culture deeply influences how people think about autonomy and the fundamental nature of being human. Drawing from fieldwork in Japan, Traphagan reveals a notably different sensibility, demonstrating how Japanese moral concepts and actions are based upon a deep awareness of the social embeddedness of people and an aesthetic sensitivity that emphasizes context and situation over universality in making moral evaluations of behavior. Traphagan develops data from Japan into a critical examination of how scholarly research in biomedical ethics, and ethics more generally, is conducted in North America. Arguing in a vein related to the emerging area of naturalized biomedical ethics, Traphagan proposes the creation of an empirically grounded study of moral behavior.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2013-01-01
Mått152 x 229 x 15 mm
Vikt363 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor173
FörlagState University of New York Press
ISBN9781438445533

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John W. Traphagan is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and also Secretary General of the Japan Anthropology Workshop. He is the author of Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan and the coeditor of Imagined Families, Lived Families: Culture and Kinship in Contemporary Japan (with Akiko Hashimoto); Wearing Cultural Styles in Japan: Concepts of Tradition and Modernity in Practice (with Christopher S. Thompson); and Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society (with John Knight), all published by SUNY Press.

Acknowledgments1. Inventing Ethics1.1 The Problem of Common Morality1.2 Embodied Culture1.3 Thinking About Culture1.4 What Is Culture?1.5 Memory, Culture, Ethics2. Self, Autonomy, and Body2.1 Principles and Ethics2.2 Autonomy2.3 What Is a Human?2.4 Culture, Mind, and Body2.5 Categories of a Person and Self2.6 The Nature of Humans2.7 Mind and Body, Inside and Outside3. Autonomy and Japanese Self-Concepts3.1 Self and Other3.2 The Individual Self3.3 Self and Childhood Development3.4 The Processive Self3.5 Moral Selves and Autonomy4. Autonomies, Virtue, and Social Change4.1 Self, Virtue, and Character4.2 Family, Self, Society4.3 Autonomy, Family, and Social Change5. Mental Health, Suicide, and Self-Centered Behavior5.1 Self and Other5.2 Suicide as Medical and Analytical Category5.3 Suicide and Self-Killing in Japan5.4 Death6. Emotion, Aesthetics, and Moral Action6.1 Situational Ethics in Japan6.2 The Obasuteyama Legend6.3 Harmony and Sincerity6.4 Japanese Ethics7. Rethinking AutonomyReferencesIndex

"...[a] fascinating book … an illuminating tale of the cultural origins of American bioethical principles and the conclusion that the American bioethical project is incomplete." — Care Management Journals"Rethinking Autonomy is the first comprehensive comparison of a non-Western moral system in the context of Western philosophy, religious studies, and ethics. This is a seminal work—a masterpiece—that will be of great importance for biomedical ethicists." — Barbara Oakley, coeditor of Pathological Altruism"In our increasingly multicultural societies, a volume such as this is essential. With life, death, and legal issues at stake, it is an important contribution that those in the health, legal, and social services professions will find valuable as they navigate the complex terrain of making decisions and counseling other people in making decisions, often in emotionally charged, if not traumatic, contexts." — Paula Arai, author of Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Rituals