Risikoethik: ein freiheitsbasierter Analyserahmen
Praktische Philosophie
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The main goal of the project was to frame risk and risk management in terms of public ethics. The project develops a comprehensive framework for a public ethics of risk grounded in an idea of equal freedom and respect among moral agents, while acknowledging the complexities of risk in societal struggles and compromises. It provides normative principles applicable across various policy domains and able to accommodate diverse societal positions and interests. Moreover, it emphasizes considering both the benefits and costs of risky actions or policies. The framework has been applied to a variety of real-life cases including cases of environmental risk for future generation; safety at the workplace and risks linked to atypical jobs. The project understands the imposition of risk (through policies, actions or omissions) as a wrong because it interferes with people’s overall freedom, defined as the ensemble of external options open to a subject. This approach - broadly in line with a neokantian interpretation of external freedom - is based on the assumption that treating people as moral agents requires respecting a certain ‘measure’ of freedom. When a risk diminishes overall freedom below that ‘measure’, imposing it is morally wrong, irrespective of the consequences for people’s wellbeing. This deontological approach has several advantages: it can explain why imposing risk is wrong even when damage does not materialize; it is independent from people’s awareness of being subject to a risk and from their actual or rational preferences about risk. So, the project offers an alternative to welfare-based and autonomy-based approaches. The second objective of the project was to define what a just distribution of risk requires. It argues that a framework considering the impact of risk on overall freedom is better suited to ensure a fair distribution of risks and benefits compared to approaches focusing only on environmental impact on different social groups, or on participatory strategies. The framework’s applicability has been tested on the issue of environmental justice and distribution of occupational risk. In the context of precarious employment, the project has explored policies like flexicurity and advocates for socialized insurance schemes to address the risks associated with atypical work. So, it aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how economic risk intersects with individual freedom and societal obligations. The third objective focused on the idea of responsibility for prevention and compensation of risk. The project highlights the importance of considering both retrospective and prospective responsibilities for risk, emphasizing the need for preventive measures alongside compensation for harm. In examining risk responsibility, the project proposes an organizational perspective, attributing responsibility to various members within an organization based on their roles and actions. It argues against scapegoating individuals and emphasizes the importance of aligning decision-making with organizational standards to mitigate risks effectively. The case study of risk at the workplace is used to explore this topic. The COVID-19 crisis and environmental policy developments that occurred during the project have highlighted the challenge of responsible risk taking. Project interruptions led to synergies with parallel work on political corruption, resulting in publications exploring responsibility for risk. The project topics have been discussed in a series of workshops and panels at international conferences and have been published in excellent international outlets. Moreover, the project has produced a wealth of materials that will lead to further publication in the next months and can inform future research projects.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
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2019. A Taxonomy of Political Corruption. Social Philosophy and Policy 35:2 (2019): 242-263
Maria Paola Ferretti
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Present Risks, Future Lives: Social Freedom and Environmental Sustainability Policies. The Journal of Ethics, 27(2), 173-190.
Ferretti, Maria Paola
