Philosophy › Contemporary
Applied ethics (bioethics, animals, global poverty)
1970s onward· School or movement· Ethics & how to live
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
The branch of philosophy that tackles concrete moral questions such as abortion, euthanasia, medical research, animal welfare and world poverty.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: moral theory should be tested on, and used for, real problems. In the 1970s philosophers turned from analyzing moral words to public issues: Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist case on abortion (1971), Peter Singer on famine (1972) and animals (1975). Bioethics grew fast after research scandals like the Tuskegee syphilis study; the Belmont Report (1979) set out US ethical principles for research on people. Business, environmental and AI ethics followed. Main objection: moral theories disagree, so applied conclusions inherit that uncertainty.
Why it matters
It put philosophers on hospital ethics committees, research review boards and government commissions, shaping informed-consent rules and public debate on animals and aid.
Where it comes from
The journal Philosophy & Public Affairs (1971), the Hastings Center (1969), Georgetown's Kennedy Institute of Ethics (1971) and the US Belmont Report (1979) document the field's rise.
Still debated
Whether applied ethics should start from theory, from case-by-case judgment (casuistry), or from adjusting both until they fit (Rawls's 'reflective equilibrium') is still debated.
Inside this (5)
Connections (2)
▸Peter Singer: the drowning child and Animal Liberation helped found Applied ethics (bioethics, animals, global poverty)Well documented
The connection
Singer showed that rigorous moral argument could tackle urgent public issues and reach unsettling conclusions. His famine essay and Animal Liberation became staples of applied ethics courses, his Practical Ethics became a standard introduction, and he helped build bioethics institutions.
When and how
Melbourne and Oxford in the 1970s; with Helga Kuhse he co-founded Monash University's Centre for Human Bioethics (1980) and the journal Bioethics (1987).
How we know
His essays are among the most reprinted in applied ethics anthologies, and Practical Ethics (1979) has gone through three editions.
Debates and open questions
Many others, including Thomson, Foot and the Hastings Center founders, built the field; how much credit Singer deserves versus the wider 1970s movement varies by account.
▸The ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings) reshaped nursing and medical ethics within Applied ethics (bioethics, animals, global poverty)Mostly agreed
The connection
Care ethics gave nurses and clinicians language for what rule-based bioethics missed: attention to relationships, vulnerability and each patient's situation, not only consent and rights. Nursing ethics textbooks adopted it widely, and it shaped debates on elder care and disability.
When and how
Nursing scholars such as Jean Watson and Patricia Benner developed care-centered theory in the 1980s; Joan Tronto's Moral Boundaries (1993) linked care to politics.
How sure are we?
Care is a standard framework in nursing ethics texts, though how much stems from Gilligan and Noddings rather than nursing's own traditions is uncertain.
Debates and open questions
Critics say care ethics offers too little guidance for policy choices like allocating scarce resources, where impartial rules seem necessary.