In so doing, I dispose of the argument that claims about ethical expertise can be grounded in some kind of Habermasian analysis.
Yoder, S. D., “The Nature of Ethical Expertise,”
Hastings Center Report 28, no. 6 (1998): 11–19;
Casarett, D. D. et al.,
“The Authority of the Clinical Ethicist,” Hastings Center Report 28, no.
6 (
1998):
6–
11;
May, T.,
Bioethics in a Liberal Society (
Baltimore, MD:
Johns Hopkins University Press,
2002): 118–26. “What moral theory can do and should be trusted to do is clarify the universal core of our moral intuitions, thereby refuting value skepticism. What it cannot do is make any kind of substantive contribution. By singling out a procedure of decisionmaking, it seeks to make room for those involved, who must then, under their own steam, find answers to the moral practical issues that come at them or are imposed upon them[.] Moral philosophy does not have privileged access to particular truths. … [Nor can it] absolve anyone of moral responsibility, including philosophers.”
Habermas, J., “Morality and Ethical Life: Does Hegel's Critique of Kant Apply to Discourse Ethics?”
Northwestern University Law Review 83 (1989): 38–53, at 53; see also,
Habermas, J.,
Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996). This does not mean, however, that I disagree with those who believe in “deliberative democracy.” See, for example,
Dzur, A. W., “Democratizing the Hospital: Deliberative-democratic Ethics,”
Journal of Health Politics Policy & Law 27 (2002): 177–211. I simply agree with those who believe that there is – or at least ought to be – something “agonistic” about democratic deliberations, especially given that the kinds of choices that arise in these cases often are “tragic choices,” i.e. the kinds of choices that one is supposed to agonize over.
Mathewes, C. T., “Faith, Hope and Agony: Christian Political Participation Beyond liberalism,”
Annual of the Society for Christian Ethics 21 (2001): 125–50;
Deveaux, M., “Agonism and Pluralism,”
Philosophy & Social Criticism 25 (
1999): 1–22;
Mouffe, C., “Agonistic Pluralism and Democratic Citizenship,” in
Sajo, A. and
Avineri, S., eds.,
The Law of Religious Identity: Models for Post-communism (The Hague: Kluwer, 1999): 29–38;
Mouffe, C.,
Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism (Wien: Institute für Höhere Studien,
2000);
Gray, J., “Agonistic Liberalism,”
Social Philosophy & Policy 12 (
1995): 111–35. The problem, it seems, is that deliberation is good, insofar as it goes, but that it does not go far enough, as occurs when the issue at hand is tragic and agonistic, i.e. “existential” in nature. See
Moreno, J. D., “Can Ethics Consultation be Saved?” in
Aulisio, M. P.,
Arnold, R. M., and
Youngner, S. J., eds.,
Ethics Consultation: From Theory to Practice (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003): 23–35, at 33–34.
Google Scholar