Penn Bioethics Seminar Series: Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH

Decision, value, preference, goal: An alternative view on key terms

Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Abstract: Fundamental terms in bioethics and health services scholarship on clinician-patient communication and patient involvement in medical care--among them decision, value, preference, and goal--are often not explicitly theorized.  The specific roots of these terms in microeconomics and moral philosophy, and the conceptual baggage they thus carry, are rarely examined.  In this talk, I'll present some thoughts-in-progress on how usage of these terms often does not help explain the complexities of empirical bioethical findings.  I'll then suggest some reformulations of these terms based on ideas from pragmatist philosophy.  The ethical approach of pragmatist philosophers, particularly Dewey, has made minor inroads into bioethics, but the pragmatists' descriptive work on semiosis, action, interaction, and the self--work that is arguably more rigorous and provocative than their ethics--has not.  I'll conclude with some reflections on how a pragmatist reframing of these terms points to new directions for bioethics.     

For more information, contact Mary Pham, Mary.Pham@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.