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SUMMARY:Ethox Seminar: The concept of vulnerability: Eliminating a problem
 ?  - Dr Anthony Wrigley (Centre for Professional Ethics\, Keele University
 )
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180523T110000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20180523T123000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/66a97b2e-c6bd-4ff0-a46d-1675dbf0125c/
DESCRIPTION:‘Vulnerability’ is a concept that is employed widely acros
 s the field of bioethics. It is also a concept that has been subject to nu
 merous different interpretations\, many of which suffer from significant p
 roblems as to their adequacy. Such accounts have been criticised as being 
 too narrow\, too general or too vague. Failure to provide a satisfactory c
 onceptual analysis has resulted in contentious definitions of the concept 
 being applied or concerns that it is playing no explanatory role through i
 ts use.  For example\, more and more categories of individuals and groups 
 have been classified as being vulnerable in an ever-increasing range of si
 tuations. In turn\, this has led to a situation where almost everyone can 
 be classified as vulnerable in some way\, thereby undermining the use of t
 he concept as providing a meaningful category in bioethics. Instead of con
 tinuing to try to refine the definition in the (futile) attempt to somehow
  capture all and only those we wish to fall under the concept\, I argue we
  should recognise that such approaches are unlikely to ever offer us a ful
 ly adequate account of vulnerability. Moreover\, the attempt to treat vuln
 erability as if it were a substantive concept might actually be problemati
 c for bioethics by deflecting attention away from issues of identifiable e
 thical concern. Accordingly\, I suggest an eliminativist position should b
 e taken towards the concept but that\, in doing so\, we can still save our
  widespread use of the term by treating it as a linguistic device. Using i
 t as a form of linguistic marker would still draw our attention to certain
  kinds of issue – an ethical ‘alert’ that retains its usefulness –
  but these would be governed by other\, better understood ethical theories
  and concepts.\nSpeakers:\nDr Anthony Wrigley (Centre for Professional Eth
 ics\, Keele University)
LOCATION:Big Data Institute (NDM) (Seminar Room 0)\, Old Road Campus OX3 7
 LF
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/66a97b2e-c6bd-4ff0-a46d-1675dbf0125c/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Ethox Seminar: The concept of vulnerability: Eliminating 
 a problem?  - Dr Anthony Wrigley (Centre for Professional Ethics\, Keele U
 niversity)
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