American Moralism and the Origin of Bioethics in the United States
- 1 February 1991
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Medicine and Philosophy
- Vol. 16 (1) , 113-130
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/16.1.113
Abstract
The theology of John Calvin has deeply affected the American mentality through two streams of thought, Puritanism and Jansenism. These traditions formulate moral problems in terms of absolute, clear principles and avoid casuistic analysis of moral problems. This approach is designated American moralism. This article suggests that the bioethics movement in the United States was stimulated by the moralistic mentality but that the work of the bioethics has departed from this viewpoint.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: