Von kommunikation über ethik zu "ethischer sensibilisierung" : Symmetrisierungsprozesse in diskursiven verfahren

Abstract

Wolfgang van den Daele claims that mechanisms which suppress moralistic posturing and enforce a concentration on a matter-of-fact style of communication result from discursive procedures. From this point of departure we present results of expert interviews with participants in clinical ethical counseling in which a special method of argumentation appears: "ethical sensitization". Whereas theories of deliberative decision-making usually focus on a future in which decisions are reached, an empirically oriented analysis concentrates on the present of ethical counseling and finds only an asymmetry between the better argument (often a medical one) and the inferior. In order to cope with this dominance of the "good" argument the participants in ethical discourses develop a special culture of communication in which every argument first of all is shown to be reversible. This means that medical expertise is fundamentally called into question before it is legitimated. This culture of "ethical sensitization" seems to produce a type of argumentation which destroys everything that sounds like a reasonable position. © Lucius & Lucius Verlag Stuttgart.