I'm not sure why Lawrence referred to Jean Bethke Elshtain as an
'ethicist,' or why whoever it was objected to this description of her.
One site I've found (a press release from Whitworth College) refers to
her as a 'Noted Ethicist and Political Philosopher,' but PR people are
not always the best source of useful distinctions. Elshtain is a
professor of political philosophy at the University of Chicago, who is
interested in ethics. An ethicist is a sort of higher order Dear Abby
(e.g. Randy Cohen, who has a weekly column in the NYT Magazine), i.e.,
someone willing to advise people about whether some proposed course of
action would be 'ethical' or not. Why there are thought to be experts in
these matters might be of some interest to sociologists, but people who
advertise themselves as ethicists are not licensed by the state, nor do
they undergo any special sort of training.
Some would distinguish between 'practical' ethics and something like the
academic study of Kant and Mill (Ethics 301); but I doubt anyone could
learn morality (or ethics) from Kant or Mill unless he or she already
had a fairly robust sense of moral concepts to begin with, and in any
case, few ethicists invoke the teachings of the Great Dead Philosophers,
except by way of trying to show that they're not just making it up on
the spot.
Lawrence:
Power in a >Violent World. When I read that a couple of years ago I referred to [JBE] as an Ethicist which >someone took exception to. I can't recall why.
Judy:
Because she isn't an ethicist. (I said that, A Philosopher agreed. That was on Another List.)
Note that Judy rightly capitalizes 'Philosopher.'
Robert Paul looking for a few clear cases somewhere south of Reed College ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
