• Home
  • About
  • Resources

The Nursing Ethics Blog

"Ethics is central to the way we care, and to the way we envision ourselves as professionals…" – Anonymous

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Ethics in Nursing Research
What is Ethics? »

The Role of Critical Thinking in Ethical Reasoning

January 13, 2014 by Chris MacDonald

From the forthcoming book, “Critical Thinking for Nurses: Cases and Concepts,” by Chris MacDonald and Nancy Walton (Oxford University Press, 2014)…

Some people may find it surprising to think that we could apply the principles of critical thinking to the world of ethics. After all, ethics touches on moral issues which may be of a deeply personal nature, and when we think of ethics we often think of issues on which different persons simply agree to disagree.

But ethics isn’t just about opinions. Certainly, all of us have intuitions about various ethical issues — everything from reproductive freedom through to gun control to how children ought to be raised. But while such intuitions and opinions are often important to us, and are often central to our conceptions of ourselves as good persons, differences of opinion on such topics can cause conflict. Such conflict can cause problems in our personal lives, as well as making it more difficult for teams and institutions to function. But as we have seen in previous chapters, not all opinions are equally well supported. Some opinions are based on mistakes of fact, and others are the result of faulty reasoning. The very same goes for ethical opinions. While all persons are equally worthy of respect, not all ethical points of view are equally well grounded in good arguments.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in ethics |

  • Search this blog

  • Recent postings

    • NZ Nurse Fired for Racist Comments on Social Media
    • Nurse Financially Exploited Elderly Couple
    • Nurses, social media and whistleblowing
    • Nursing schools: more focus on ethics?
    • ANA President Praises Navy’s Decision
  • Stuff on this site

    • About
      • Speaking / Training
    • Resources
      • Articles
      • Canadian Resources
      • Critical Thinking for Nurses
      • International Resources
      • Nurse Autonomy
        • Autonomy Bibliography
        • Nurse Autonomy as Relational
      • Nursing Codes of Ethics
  • Contact:

    • e-Mail Nancy
    • e-Mail Chris
  • See also:

    • The Biotech Ethics Blog
    • The Business Ethics Blog
    • The Food Ethics Blog
    • The Research Ethics Blog

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • The Nursing Ethics Blog
    • Join 52 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Nursing Ethics Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: