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

Drawing The Boundaries Of The Ethical SelfThis paper evaluates roughly philosophical views regarding the ego who is an ethical deliberator and agent-specifically the traditional atomistic individualist ego and the expanded biocentric self of deep ecology. The paper then presents an alternative modality of thinking about the ethical self which avoids some of the philosophical difficulties of the prior views. This alternative draws on the recent work by Val Plumwood and Donna Haraway. Haraways cyborg individualism is a kind of self-in-relation (Plumwoods term) which allows for ethical clumsinesss that take relations with others seriously without losing individuation 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 foresightfulness and moral foresight are introduced to enable determinations of moral responsibility without travel back into the problematic universalism which otherwise results 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(prenominal) deliberation. But a self is assumed, and usually in westward 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 assumption 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. Cyborg selves are neither isolated egos nor world-souls which intermingle individuals. Cyborg selves are contingent, multiple, adaptive, connected. The mutable character of cyborg selves points out the need for acknowledging, rather 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. bare-assed York Routledge.Plumwood, Val. 1995. Nature, Self and Gender Feminism, Environmental Philosophy, and the Critique of Rationalism. in People, Penguins, and Plastic Trees staple fibre Issues in Environmental Ethics, 2d ed., eds. Christine Pierce and Donald VanDeVeer. Belmont, CA Wadsworth Publishing Co.