The Program of Applied Ethics Studies

TAKEUCHI Seiichi(the chairman of "Applied Ethics" Working Group)

"The Program of Applied Ethics Studies," newly established this academic year, is a special program that researches and studies issues of "applied ethics" which have surfaced as new groups of topics and areas of inquiry due to the sophisticated development of contemporary technology and society. Since this program shares many overlapping subjects and areas of interest with the 21st century COE Program "Construction of Death and Life Studies" inaugurated recently, we have decided to corporate and support each other through interpersonal and organizational efforts. This short essay is a result of a request to confirm this situation as the chairman of "applied ethics" WG. (In fact, later I became involved in the Death and Life Studies project as a sub-leader, but this text is written from the perspective of the former, as the chairman of the "applied ethics" WG)

The field of "applied ethics" has been developed vigorously in each country of the world, including Japan, to meet urgent social demands to respond to a variety of critical topics of the past twenty-five years, and have produced significant results and achievements. However, I cannot say with confidence that the field has established a firm grounding of academic methodology. The issues entailed in the technological topics such as organ transfer, genetic engineering, in-vitro fertilization, and cloning are issues that, (quoting the words of Kato Naotake, one of the pioneers of applied ethics in Japan) "have no protocol no matter how much we read classic texts of ethics and philosophy. There is no established theory. It is not surprising that past discourses and traditions can offer no answers regardless of our fervent attempt. Borrowing a line from kabuki, 'even the Buddha doesn't know.'" (Mietekita Kinmirai/Tetsugaku, Nakanishiya publishing) In areas like these, new forms of integration and fusion of cutting-edge knowledge of natural science and that of humanities and social science are demanded.

Speaking with full admission of these conditions of applied ethics, it is also a fact that these forefront contemporary issues cannot be resolved only through the perspective of "the current." In the recent seminar in applied ethics, the lector Komatsu Yoshihiko discussed the topic "The Danger and Limits of 'Bio·ethics Studies'." In this lecture, Komatsu critically singled out the fact that basically the current "applied (bio) ethics" constantly concerns itself with controlling conditions and traffic, and their work has become synonymous with enacting laws and checking off the scientific list. His suggestion warned us of the fact that limiting our questions strictly to "current" issues could result in neglecting the enormous accumulations of cultures and civilizations. That is, the foundational issues must, rendered specifically according to the ways of humanities and social science, come round to questions of "what is life," "what is dignity" "what is value" and "what is a human being." The important part is, I believe, whether or not we can expand these issues by thoroughly combining (integrating and fusing) the forefront knowledge provided by natural science.

Needless to say, this project "Construction of Death and Life Studies" (formally "Construction of Death and Life Studies concerning Culture and Value of Life") also tries to answer these intellectual demands by inquiring about the frameworks of "death" and "life" that have become more and more difficult to see due to the sophisticated development of contemporary technology and society. This establishes the purpose of collaboration and support between the COE project "Construction of Death and Life Studies" and "The Program for Applied Ethics Studies." As a concrete plan of collaboration, we plan to regularly work together by designing a new curriculum and co-hosting conferences, and as a collective event.