应用伦理为社会治理提供实践智慧

Applied Ethics:Practical Wisdom for Social Governance

技术治理是当代社会治理的一种新形态,但技术治理具有“双刃剑”的特征。社会治理如果过度依赖技术手段,无视技术治理的基本伦理准则,技术治理所引发的各种伦理问题也将随之暴露出来。技术治理的工具理性使得技术治理过程与治理伦理目标逐渐分离,社会治理的价值理性维度被忽视,过度技术化的社会治理必然导致公共权力的越界或滥用。应用伦理学是伦理学的新兴分支学科,通过对现实社会伦理问题的反思和探究,应用伦理学提出解决现实社会伦理问题和进行社会治理所应遵循的伦理原则与道德规范。应用伦理是各种社会生活伦理形态的集合,是专业性的道德实践系统,其目标是通过不同应用场景的职业活动实现对具体社会问题的伦理治理,以改善现实的伦理生活世界,推动社会治理体系与治理能力向着合乎人的内在价值需求和社会伦理之善的正确方向发展。科技创新“制造”了多种新型的与社会治理密切相关的伦理交往和道德生活场景,科技创新背景下的社会治理亟需应用伦理的实践智慧。应用伦理是实现社会治理“伦理先行”的专业支撑,“应用伦理”专业硕士学位的设置为社会治理供给专业伦理人才,伦理委员会是应用伦理参与社会治理的一种行动机制。

This study examines three aspects of applied ethics for social governance:1.The technicalization of social governance and its ethical deficiencies.Technological governance represents a novel form of contemporary social governance.Current global trends indicate a preference among technologists and government agencies for using technology to enhance the efficacy of governance,leading to potential greater benefits.However,technological governance is a double-edged sword,because if social governance excessively relies on technical methods while disregarding fundamental ethical principles,a myriad of ethical dilemmas may emerge.The instrumental rationality of technological governance can gradually sever the link between its processes and its ethical objectives,consequently neglecting the value rationality that is essential in social governance.Excessive utilization of technical methods in social governance is bound to result in the transgression or misuse of public authority.2.The practical wisdom of applied ethics.Ethics is a practical philosophy oriented to the moral life of human beings,ideally remaining open and sensitive to a wide array of social and ethical concerns.To effectively fulfll its practical role,ethics must transcend philosophical speculation and actively engage with tangible reality.Emerging in the 1960s,applied ethics became a sub-discipline of contemporary ethics,sparking a pivotal paradigm shift in the study of social and ethical matters.The issues it confronts are new and specific,and its endeavors to elucidate and resolve these issues show its distinctive practical atributes.Through introspection and exploration of social and ethical issues,applied ethics formulates ethical principles and moral norms that should guide their resolutions in the execution of social governance;in addition,the deep examination of these issues enriches its theoretical facets.Applied ethics examines an entire spectrum of social life,encompassing domains such as science and technology ethics,economic ethics,bioethics,ecological ethics,business ethics,educational ethics,legal ethics,and so on.All these spheres find affiliation within the realm of applied ethics.Applied ethics constitutes a professional moral practice system,with the goal not of establishing uniform and universal ethical principles,but of concentrating on distinct moral domains.It addresses particular ethical issues of diverse professional situations,thus fostering the improvement and transformation of the ethical life of human beings.3.The professional function of applied ethics in social governance.Applied ethics provides professional support for the realization of"putting ethics first"in social governance.The advancement of science and technology in modern society has spurred the technological evolution of social governance across diverse professional domains,underlining the growing necessity and significance of professional ethics.Ethics must assume a proactive role in social governance,transcending mere spectator and hindsight.Social governance ought to embody ethical governance,harmonizing the pursuit of value rationality,a role effectively facilitated by applied ethics.China has taken significant strides in establishing professional master's degree programs in applied ethics in higher education institutions.This major initiative aims to cultivate ethical professionals capable of meeting the demands of modern social governance.These professionals,functioning as an ethical community,would actively engage in ethical governance across various sectors of social life and provide essential contributions rooted in their professional expertise.Ethics committees stand out as pivotal mechanisms through which applied ethics permeates social governance.The establishment of ethics committees at institutions of diverse types and levels serves to challenge the dominance of conventional narrative logic centered exclusively on science and technology.By doing so,it paves the way for the proactive involvement of ethics in social governance,progressively moving towards its institutionalization.