The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics...

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Robert Baker (William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy, Union College)

The Structure of Moral Revolutions

Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker (William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy, Union College)

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English

MIT Press
12 November 2019

Ethics & moral philosophy; Medical ethics & professional conduct

Series: Basic Bioethics

A theoretical account of moral revolutions, illustrated by historical cases that include the criminalization and decriminalization of abortion and the patient rebellion against medical paternalism.

We live in an age of moral revolutions in which the once morally outrageous has become morally acceptable, and the formerly acceptable is now regarded as reprehensible. Attitudes toward same-sex love, for example, and the proper role of women, have undergone paradigm shifts over the last several decades. In this book, Robert Baker argues that these inversions are the product of moral revolutions that follow a pattern similar to that of the scientific revolutions analyzed by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

After laying out the theoretical terrain, Baker develops his argument with examples of moral reversals from the recent and distant past. He describes the revolution, led by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, that transformed the postmortem dissection of human bodies from punitive desecration to civic virtue; the criminalization of abortion in the nineteenth century and its decriminalization in the twentieth century; and the invention of a new bioethics paradigm in the 1970s and 1980s, supporting a patient-led rebellion against medical paternalism. Finally, Baker reflects on moral relativism, arguing that the acceptance of ""absolute"" moral truths denies us the diversity of moral perspectives that permit us to alter our morality in response to changing environments.

By: Robert Baker (William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy Union College)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 22mm
ISBN: 9780262043083
ISBN 10: 0262043084
Series: Basic Bioethics
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 12 November 2019
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Robert Baker is William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and Professor of Bioethics and Founding Director (Emeritus) of the Bioethics Program at Clarkson University-Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He is the author of Before Bioethics- A History of American Medical Ethics.

Reviews for The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker brings to this remarkable book his training in the history and philosophy of science in synergy with decades of experience as a philosopher in the clinical setting and a pioneering scholar in the history of medical ethics. Baker's book makes an outstanding addition to the Basic Bioethics series edited by Arthur Caplan for the MIT Press. -Zucker School of Medicine/Baylor College of Medicine