Journal of Clinical Research & Bioethics

Abstract

A Practical Heuristic for Dialogical Argument-Making in Applied Ethics

Rehg W

This short communication sets forth a modification of Habermas’s discourse ethics, designed to render the dialogical features of discourse ethics practically feasible in contexts that do not have the institutional resources for organizing actual discourses inclusive of all stakeholders. After briefly sketching an interpretation of Habermas’s principle of dialogical universalization, I set forth a practical heuristic that recasts discourse-ethical idealizations as feasible research tasks of two sorts: dialogical argument-construction and public-merits assessment. The communication closes with a short consideration of the challenge that value conflicts pose for discourse bioethics.