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.
