Ethics in the spheres of life

What to do? What and how to responsibly choose when a patient’s life is on the line…, when an economic choice involves the perspectives of entire categories…., when climate change endangers the quality of life of future generations ...? To face such demanding questions a discipline called applied ethics is born and, in recent years, it has been given a remarkable diffusion. If the word “ethics” refers to a philosophical tradition already action-oriented, the adjective “applied” adds the reference to the concreteness of situations in need of judgment.
The book “Ethics in the spheres of life”, edited by Simone Morandini (Proget Edizioni, 2010), opening the series “Quaderni di Etica Applicata”, comes out in occasion of the 10th anniversary of the journal “Etica per le professioni - Questioni di etica applicata”. In the book reflections and insight materials discussed during the First National Forum on Applied Ethics (“Etica oggi, dove, come e perchè” - held on October 23, 2008 in Padova, promoted by the Fondazione Lanza and sponsored by Banca Etica) are presented.

Through different contributions, a comprehensive introduction to applied ethics emerges both in its main problematic cruces: meanings, interpretations, models, perspectives (cfr. contributions by R. Chadwick, J. Verstraeten, A. Autiero, R. Mordacci); and in its main operative areas: technology (A. Bondolfi), bioethics (F. Turoldo), environment (M. Mascia), politics (L. Biagi) and economics (S. Zamagni).

Interesting and useful key to the reading and ground for discussion on ethics in the spheres of life is the document at the beginning of the book “The Applied Ethics challenge” elaborated by the “Ethics, Philosophy and Theology” Project of the Fondazione Lanza.