Off the rails: thin moral thinking and stylised ethical dilemmas

Paolo Heywood; Adam Douglas Evelyn Reed

doi:10.3167/sa.2023.670303

Off the rails: thin moral thinking and stylised ethical dilemmas

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This introduction situates the trolley problem and other such dilemmas in anthropological debates about contextualisation and abstraction both within and beyond the realm of the moral. We highlight some of the criticisms anthropologists have made of the ‘thinness’ of ethical thought experiments, whilst also suggesting some ways in which philosophers might wish to defend them. We also point to a growing interest on the part of a range of anthropologists in formalised, stylized, and abbreviated modes of ethical reasoning and emphasise the importance of attending to such forms of reasoning, even though they may conflict with our disciplinary preference for the ‘thick’ and the contextualised.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	45-57
Number of pages	13
Journal	Social Analysis
Volume	67
Issue number	3
Early online date	1 Sept 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2023.670303
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2023

Keywords

Contextualisation
ethics
philosophy
thought experiments
trolley problems

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10.3167/sa.2023.670303Licence: CC BY

Heywood_2023_SocialAnalysis_Off-the-rails_CCBY
© The Authors. This article is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license as part of Berghahn Open Anthro, a subscribe-to open model for APC-free open access made possible by the journal’s subscribers.
Final published version, 700 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Off the rails: thin moral thinking and stylised ethical dilemmas",

abstract = "This introduction situates the trolley problem and other such dilemmas in anthropological debates about contextualisation and abstraction both within and beyond the realm of the moral. We highlight some of the criticisms anthropologists have made of the {\textquoteleft}thinness{\textquoteright} of ethical thought experiments, whilst also suggesting some ways in which philosophers might wish to defend them. We also point to a growing interest on the part of a range of anthropologists in formalised, stylized, and abbreviated modes of ethical reasoning and emphasise the importance of attending to such forms of reasoning, even though they may conflict with our disciplinary preference for the {\textquoteleft}thick{\textquoteright} and the contextualised.",

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JO - Social Analysis

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ER -

Off the rails: thin moral thinking and stylised ethical dilemmas

Abstract

Keywords

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