Vaergoth wrote:
Who is an ethicist? Can I claim to the world that I have spent a long time thinking through my ethical system, and that makes me a sound source of advice on moral matters? Or is there actually an acedemic system, where an ethicist can say that he is such an expert with the same kind of certainty as a physicist, or a neurologist, or a psychholgist.
There are two answers to this question. Firstly, the obvious one -- an ethicist is a philosopher who studies questions like "what does it mean to do right?" or "can I say that state of affairs A is inherently better than state of affairs B, for any A and B?"
Yes, you can claim you are such a person. Any claim, especially in the realm of philosophy, must be substantiated; so, then, what articles have you published? What post-doctoral fellowships can you boast? Do people even listen to you on the radio?
If your name is Jerry Falwell or Laura Schlesinger or Jesse Jackson, you are an ethicist. Both Michael Moore and Ann Coulter are ethicists, too. These people have
credentials -- and, as with all credentials, it is up to you to give them more or less strength in convincing you. Credentials are a way of saying, "this other important person thinks I have something important to say, so you should also."
The second answer is, "we are all ethicists". It is inherently human to ask the question, "is A better than B?" We can't escape it. As we reflect upon it, we may or may not find the act of making such distinctions valuable; but even to say, "asking ethical questions is not valuable" is to make an ethical judgement.
What the people with the vaccine are saying is, "we want to trust people with impressive credentials to tell us what to do in this possible emergency." I suggest to you: get a Ph.D in philosophy, or a D.D., stat -- and get a job with a radio station.
Tamayo the cynic