SKC Workshop

Johann-Christian Põder

(The University of Rostock, Germany)

"Kierkegaard and Bioethics – An Inspiring Encounter"

The aim of the talk is to show that the often rather technical and principle-based focus of bioethics can be fruitfully combined with and complemented by insights from Kierkegaardian existential philosophy and ethics. Bioethics inspired by Kierkegaard is not focussed primarily on ethical codes, principles, or cases (cf. principlism and casuistry), but on the existential “how” of our medical situation. It pays attention to our existential anthropological situation as an indispensable dimension of our normative judgments and views. That means that bioethics should pay attention to concrete attitudes and practices, which help us to maintain and facilitate the ethical dimension of our lives, to transform our modes of being ourselves and being in relation to others (like earnestness, hope or responsibility).